Jessy Miele faces the biggest name in her MMA tenure as she battles TUF 18 contestant Peggy Morgan on the main card of CES 30 on August 14th, live on AXS TV. Miele has been training MMA for 10 years but didn’t fast track her professional career because of school. “My coach told me I was pretty much wasn’t going to fight in the cage until I had my bluebelt.” Miele told MMAOddsBreaker. “So I completed a lot the first year I started training, enough to earn my blue belt in under a year, so that was really cool. I got into the cage as an amateur right off the bat. What happened was I was working 40 hours a week and going to grad school. I just continued to train everyday but getting back in the cage while at grad school, while working in the corporate world was not going to happen in those two and a half years. I pretty much was just going to keep continuing to train everyday in the MMA world but just compete jiu-jitsu more often, then [compete] in MMA.” Miele (4-1) wanted to learn how to defend herself in any situation which is what initially sparked her interest in MMA. The competitive aspect of the sport was also a factor, being a collegiate athlete herself playing rugby, soccer, softball and basketball. She’ll be the first to tell you that she was a casual fan when it came to watching the sport, but later grew to enjoy watching it the more she was training. ” A couple of my friends would go and watch the fights all the time. But we’d be like ‘oh I like that guys walkout music, so he should win.’ As I progressed through, I definitely took to understanding a lot more of what was happening. That definitely helped me grow and want to learn more. For me it was always about doing the sport, not always watching as much.” Like many fighters competing on the regional circuit, Miele works a full time job on top of training as a multimedia content developer at Post University. For the 30-year old, its a nice balance between work and training. “I design web based videos and some of their course ware [at Post University]. I do a lot of coding with html and I’m in a lot of programs for video production. It’s cool though because I used to work for Sikorsky Aircraft and I worked in human resources. It wasn’t as rewarding for me as this job. So all the people around me support me, they watch my fights on TV and if they can make it they’ll come. I do work 40 hours a week and I train. My training schedule the more hours you can put in, the better. It’s pretty much like [I’m back] in grad school just martial arts grad school.” Interestingly enough, it was Morgan who requested this fight with Miele at CES 30 on August 14th. Miele admitted she was excited when she got the call. “[CES President] Pat Sullivan is a great guy. He mentioned a fight in the past, a couple times. But Peggy wanted the fight. I emailed Pat about fighting in any upcoming shows and he actually emailed me back [saying Peggy wanted to fight me]. So I was really excited about that and being on this card. I think my fans are more excited than friends because they can [finally] watch me fight [live on AXS TV]. Some of them are way out in Texas and California. For some some reason half of my fights don’t get put online. This time hopefully there won’t be any issues. But I think other people are more excited than I am.” For some fighters, making their promotional debut with CES can be a bit nerve racking, especially with the national exposure of this event being brodcasted on AXS TV. But for Miele, she’s been here before and it won’t affect her one bit. “I think being an athletic person and doing all the sports I’ve done. I’ve been under a lot of pressure, in certain times in front of big crowds. A lot of the times under the lights you can barely see anybody. You can’t really see outside of the cage. At the end of the day it’s exciting, I’m not thinking about being on TV while I’m in the cage.” Miele trains at IMB out of Waterbury, Connecticut with her head coach and mentor Christoper Smith. Despite Morgan being a veteran of both the UFC and Invicta, Miele believes this is a favorable matchup for her. “She’s well rounded it looks like. I believe she’s a purple belt in jiu-jitsu; she’s got some tournaments under her belt. I’m really excited to matchup with her. She’s a little taller than me, so she’ll be the tallest fighter I fight but that’s really the only major difference than anyone else I’ve fought. Really for me I’m a finisher, it doesn’t really matter how I finish. I want to finish her; I’m going to finish her. I don’t care if it’s a TKO, KO that is what I’m doing. I’m not going [to the judges’ scorecards].” Morgan (3-3) has lost four of her last fights and is still under contract to Invicta. She requested a fight outside the promtoion not only to keep her active, but to also gain more experience as a martial artist. With that said Miele believes there is equal pressure for both fighters in this matchup, as she looks to use Morgan as a stepping stone into a bigger promotion. “I think the pressure is equal, [this matchup] is a big stepping stone. The pressure is [also] on for me because I’d like to fight for Invicta, Bellator or the UFC. For me it’s a great fight and the pressure is all internal.” You can follow Jessy on Twitter @jessymiele and you can check her fan page on Facebook page Jessy Miele. She would like to thank her team IMB Academy of CT and her coach Christopher Smith. You can listen to the full audio interview below on an “Extra” edition of The Parting Shot Podcast (11 mins in).
