Jim Miller returns at UFC 328 after helping son beat ‘aggressive and rare’ childhood cancer

It’s been a hot minute since we’ve seen veteran fighter Jim Miller in the cage, and now we’re learning there’s a good reason why.

Miller is one of the longest lasting athletes in the UFC, having been with the promotion since 2008 and fighting a wild 46 times for them (57 times overall in his MMA career). He fought on UFC 100, UFC 200, and UFC 300. He says he’ll retire once he hits 50 UFC fights, which means you really want to appreciate his upcoming bout with Jared Gordon at UFC 328, especially once you hear

what Jim went through over the past year.

Miller has been unusually absent over the past twelve months, and it turns out it’s because he’s been taking care of his son who went through cancer treatment.

“My older son, my 14-year-old son, ended up having some health issues,” Miller told BJPenn.com’s Cole Shelton. “He kicked its ass. We had a really tough six months, the last three months of last year and the first three months of this year. I couldn’t be happier with the way things turned out. He’s amazing, he’s an amazing young man, he makes me proud every day.”

“He had cancer, he was diagnosed with Rhabdomyosarcoma,” Miller continued. “Which is a very aggressive and very rare childhood cancer. He had a tumor tucked into his sinus and eye socket. Frontally, location-wise, it was probably in the best spot it could be. It popped right out when he did the biopsy. But he still had to go through the two rounds of chemotherapy and a round of radiation. The radiation was for five weeks, every day by Rutgers, which is an hour-and-a-half from us.”

“The ability to do that and move my schedule around, cause I was training for a fight when he got into the radiation part. I’m glad I’m a fighter, I’m glad I chose this road, so I could be there for my son and help him through his struggles.”

Miller added that he has taken all the worry and stress from that situation and channeling it into training.

“For my own sanity, I needed to get in there and train,” he said. “And I’ve been in the gym for months now, not full-on fight camp, but it is healing to choke somebody sometimes.”

Miller is 3-2 over his last five while Gordon is 2-2-1. While Gordon is the favorite heading into New Jersey, Miller has always been a live underdog and undoubtedly comes into this hometown match with extra motivation.