As he looks to snap his skid, what did Anthony Pettis see in Jim Miller?

Former UFC lightweight champion Anthony Pettis is currently mired in the worst slump of his professional career, with just one win in his five outings. So why did specifically request to fight Jim Miller?

“All fighters go through this at some point in their career,” UFC matchmaker Sean Shelby said on the latest addition of the UFC’s “Watch List” series. “I think (Pettis) came to a patch where he was experimenting, going down to ’45. I think he found out that the weight cut was diminishing returns for him. He’s back up at ’55, and he’s the one who really wanted this fight. He called me and was really pushing for it.”

Miller, of course, happily accepted the challenge.

“You know Jim Miller,” Shelby said. “I mean, Jim Miller doesn’t give an ‘F.’ He’s a guy that will fight anybody, any day of the week. You don’t even have to call him, and he’ll show up, and he was down for this fight – and on paper, it’s a really fun fight.”

Pettis (19-6 MMA, 6-5 UFC) and Miller (28-9 MMA, 17-8 UFC) meet in a lightweight contest on the pay-per-view main card of next week’s UFC 213 event, which takes place July 8 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

Nine years into his UFC run, Miller is coming off of a hard-fought loss to Dustin Poirier at February’s UFC 208, a result that snapped a three-fight winning streak for the New Jersey native.

But the stakes seem much higher for Pettis, who is still just 30 but seems in dire need of proving he can still be the “Showtime” of old.

Shelby believes the two styles should come together for a memorable contest.

“Miller is always in epic battles, and Pettis, I still think he’s in the prime of his career,” Shelby said. “I think he’s still go it. I think he just needs to find himself again.”

To hear more from Shelby and fellow UFC matchmaker Mick Maynard on the key fights at UFC 213, check out the video above.

And for more on UFC 213, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.