fights later Miletich fought in UFC 16 and won the first UFC Welterweight tournament. Welterweight champion At UFC 17.5: Ultimate Brazil, Miletich defeated Mikey Burnett to become the first UFC Welterweight Champion. In his fifth title defense at UFC 31 he suffered his first UFC loss as he lost the championship to Carlos Newton by submission. According to Miletich, he had a rematch clause in his contract but it was bypassed by the organization as Miletich's camp already had multiple high-ranked fighters in the welterweight division. His next fight was a KO win over Shonie Carter at UFC 32. Move up to middleweight After the fight with Carter, Miletich moved up to the Middleweight division. This was also partly due to encouragement by UFC management and because his teammate, Matt Hughes, defeated Carlos Newton to win the UFC Welterweight Championship. Miletich returned to fight at his new weight at UFC 36, but quickly lost to Matt Lindland. Miletich decided to take some time away from professional fighting and recover from numerous chronic injuries. Miletich was scheduled to fight Frank Trigg at WFA 3 but pulled out due to injury. He returned in September 2006 to fight Renzo Gracie in an IFL superfight, and submitted to a guillotine choke in the first round. Miletich spoke briefly after the fight about re-aggravating his old neck injury before the Gracie fight. Miletich's last fight was in December 2008 where he scored a second-round KO over Thomas Denny that was televised on the HDNet network. Over a decade since his last mixed martial arts bout, Miletich was originally scheduled to face Michael Nunn in a kickboxing match on April 18, 2020. However, the bout was rescheduled to July 18, 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Miletich lost to Nunn via split decision. Fighter coaching Miletich founded Miletich Fighting Systems, a mixed martial arts academy in his hometown of Bettendorf, Iowa. MFS has trained over 90 televised fighters and 11 MMA world champions, including former two-time UFC Welterweight Champion and UFC Hall of Famer Matt Hughes, former two-time UFC Heavyweight Champion Tim Sylvia, former UFC Lightweight Champion Jens Pulver, and former EliteXC Middleweight Champion and former UFC Welterweight Champion Robbie Lawler. Law enforcement/military training For over 15 years Miletich has trained local, state, and federal law-enforcement officers and military groups from all service branches, including special-operations groups attached to those branches. He has also written