LAS VEGAS (AP) - Nevada Secretary of State Ross Miller is doing something every politician dreams about: retiring undefeated.
But the 36-year-old son of former Gov. Bob Miller isn't saying goodbye to the political arena. He's just throwing his hat out of the ring - make that the octagon - after winning his first and only official mixed martial arts bout.
"I'm one and done," Miller said after winning one of 10 amateur MMA fights the World Fighting Championship sponsored over the weekend at a Lake Tahoe hotel-casino.
"Competing in an MMA event was on my bucket list. Now that I've got it done, I've got a day job and an important election coming up," he told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
The 6-foot-4, 205-pound Democrat was the youngest secretary of state in America when first elected in 2006.
A star basketball player at Bishop Gorman High School in Las Vegas, Miller got into MMA in recent years and has been working out in the basement gym of UFC headquarters with some fighters and trainers.
In 2008, he partnered with the UFC in a series of TV commercials encouraging young people to "fight for your ultimate right to vote."
But Saturday's appearance in the co-main event at the Montbleu Theater was his first official MMA competition. His walkout music was Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Fortunate Son." His corner men and fan section wore T-shirts that read: "My secretary of state can arm bar your secretary of state."
The fight was stopped in the second round after Miller delivered a body kick and a hard right hand that dropped Jamal Williams, a former high school wrestler and brawler. Miller said MMA "requires incredible mental strength and resilience and that's what I love most about it."
"Your mind will try to give you a million reasons to quit but you've got to push through."
