Jim Miller thought he was completed.
It was 2016, and a large number of well being points not solely affected his coaching and preparation, however the ends in Miller’s fights weren’t serving to a lot both. As he stumbled via a 1-3 octagon skid, the longtime veteran started readying for a showdown with Diego Sanchez at UFC 196, and he couldn’t assist however shake the sensation that the writing was the wall.
His MMA profession was coming to finish ahead of he anticipated.
“I used to be not having a go of it,” Miller advised MMA Combating forward of his UFC 300 return towards Bobby Inexperienced. “2015 was fairly exhausting on me, within the health club and I didn’t know what was occurring. I assumed it was, ‘Hey, you’ve been an expert fighter for the final 10 years, that is what it’s supposed be like. Your knees harm. You’ve acquired nerve points and numbness and stuff. Yeah, you’re going to have reminiscence issues.’
“I’ve solely been knocked unconscious twice in my life — it’s been contained in the octagon. It’s by no means occurred in coaching, so it’s not like I take a ton of injury in coaching. I’m a wrestler and I lead with my head, so we knew at that time too that it’s the little bumps, like from soccer, it’s all of that stuff. It’s not essentially the large jarring pictures that you realize it and you’re feeling it. It’s these little bumps that do add up. I figured this was all simply from being an expert fighter for a decade. That is what I’m going to need to take care of.”
However simply days earlier than his battle with Sanchez, Miller acquired a name from his physician that lastly defined why his well being had taken a sudden and dramatic nosedive.
Miller was identified with Lyme illness, an an infection unfold by ticks that causes a myriad of well being points, together with fever, headache, and fatigue. When left untreated, the problems can unfold to joints, the center, and even the nervous system. The prognosis shortly defined the entire issues that Miller had been coping with, however he nonetheless didn’t know the way lengthy it will take for therapy to truly make a distinction for him.
That’s why, after reserving his subsequent battle a number of months later at UFC 200, Miller was able to name it quits for good.
“I used to be identified two or three days previous to that occasion,” Miller defined. “I used to be out in Las Vegas once I acquired the telephone name from my physician saying he thought I had Lyme illness. So it was like, I fought Diego [Sanchez], I got here again and began my medicine and my protocol, and I used to be like, ‘Effectively, aright, let’s ask to be on UFC 200.’
“If that is it, if I can get out of this, then we’ll see the place it takes me. If I can’t, if the subsequent couple of weeks are as dangerous because the final 12 months and a half have been, then I used to be keen to take my gloves off within the octagon at UFC 200.”
Miller didn’t launch into his coaching camp pondering his profession was on borrowed time, however he additionally knew there wanted to be a dramatic distinction in his bodily situation if he was going to proceed combating past UFC 200.
He brazenly addressed the likelihood that he would possibly name it a profession on the historic occasion, as a result of that’s simply how dangerous his well being had gotten after leaving the Lyme illness untreated.
“Luckily, I responded actually shortly to the antibiotics,” Miller mentioned. “It was a kind of issues while you’re at 20 p.c and also you go to 30 p.c, you’re like, ‘Man, that is wonderful!’ You’re feeling such as you’re on high of the world, but it surely was a protracted, sluggish climb out. It did take so much longer than I assumed it was going to.
“However I used to be ready. I used to be prepared. I had already made that call. That’s why I felt so comfy speaking about it, the final eight years, as a result of I had made that call. I had made the choice to stroll away from the game. Luckily, a majority of the problems I used to be coping with was from one thing unassociated with being a fighter and the approach to life that I lead.”
With the potential of retirement looming giant over UFC 200, Miller was nonetheless unbelievably excited for the prospect to share the octagon with a legend like Takanori Gomi.
There was a time not lengthy earlier than they met that Gomi was thought of the No. 1 light-weight on the earth throughout each promotion. Miller acknowledges that wasn’t the identical Gomi he confronted at UFC 200, however he by no means scoffed on the alternative to conflict with an all-time nice.
“Even earlier than I began coaching, earlier than the UFC even introduced again light-weight, he was the very best light-weight man on the planet,” Miller mentioned. “I keep in mind it was Takanori Gomi and Vitor ‘Shaolin’ [Ribeiro]. These two guys are simply superior.
“Years later, I fought Takanori Gomi and I get to coach with Vitor. That is wonderful. It was superior to listen to that title. I perceive at that time, the mileage on that man’s physique, he wasn’t the identical man that made me fall in love with the game. He was not that very same fighter and I do know that, but it surely was cool to get the chance to share the octagon with him. I want it was once we have been each in our primes, but it surely’s the best way it goes. We weren’t. I positive as s*** know that I wasn’t at that time in my life. It was cool to get to battle him.”
Principally wholesome and practically recovered from the consequences of the Lyme illness, Miller wanted lower than three minutes to knock out Gomi and put his profession again on monitor. It was a shocking flip of occasions, however extra importantly it signaled that Miller actually was on his approach again after having years robbed from him whereas he was sick and simply didn’t comprehend it.
With out the medical doctors that lastly identified his Lyme illness, Miller is aware of he would’ve retired at UFC 200 — and that will’ve prevented him from including a complete slew of accolades to his résumé since that occasion in 2016.
“If I had referred to as it quits at [UFC] 200, the data and the talks that we’ve got about potential Corridor of Fame, they don’t occur,” Miller mentioned. “Now, granted, had I not gotten bit by a tick, who is aware of the place I might have been at that time too. I used to be ranked No. 6 or one thing like that at one level. The issues that I handled, they positively pulled me down.
“Luckily, I used to be capable of overcome it, and the most important factor for me was understanding that I used to be going to battle. I used to be getting beat up on a regular basis and I didn’t know if I wanted to be getting ready on a regular basis and getting one-percent higher in that realm. Discovering out that I had an opponent that was kicking my butt backstage was large, and simply understanding that made it so much simpler to take care of it.”
Even now, at age 40, as he approaches his return at UFC 300, Miller says the identical guidelines apply now as they as soon as did at UFC 200.
For as a lot has modified eight years later, nothing has modified.
“For me, it’s at all times been the coaching camp,” Miller mentioned. “Struggle evening’s exhausting, battle week’s exhausting, but it surely’s a really quick time period. It’s these six, eight weeks main as much as a battle the place you’re kicking your individual ass, that’s the exhausting half. That’s the grind. The battle is the reward.
“I knew with how these few weeks main as much as that battle went and the way totally different they have been from my last few camps that, OK, we will nonetheless do that. It wasn’t essentially the ends in the octagon that have been driving me to retire. It was the months main as much as a battle. That’s the identical factor as we speak.”
