Jim Miller reveals significant memory loss from 2015 to 2017 due to Lyme disease: ‘There’s just a dark cloud’
Jim Miller really was ready to call it a career.
Dealing with severe pain, brain fog, and extreme exhaustion, the New Jersey native believed that time and damage finally caught up with him. It’s a risk every fighter takes when part of the job involves getting punched in the head for a living, but it wasn’t until several years later that Miller found out he actually contracted Lyme disease — a condition passed through infected ticks that can cause a myriad of health issues.
After finally receiving treatment, Miller began the long journey back to regain his health, which gave him a second lease on life that included the chance to continue his fighting career. Now, several years removed from that diagnosis, Miller not only feels better than ever before, but at age 40, he’s making up for lost time.
“I know that my road is like nobody else’s,” Miller told MMA Fighting ahead of his UFC Vegas 84 bout against Gabriel Benitez. “I was ranked in the top 10 in the world and bitten by a tick that was carrying Lyme disease and it f****** my world up. More than I’ve talked about, honestly.”
Miller previously addressed a number of problems he faced while infected with Lyme disease, however he revealed another post-treatment issue that plagued him in terrifying and unexpected ways. As if the physical ailments weren’t bad enough, Miller says there are huge gaps in his memory thanks to a side effect of Lyme disease found in about 10 to 20 percent of those infected, which mimics symptoms found in dementia-related conditions.
“There’s a brain plaque that’s associated with Lyme disease that looks exactly like freaking Alzheimer’s,” Miller said. “My memory from about 2015 through maybe early 2017, there’s times when my wife will bring something up and there is nothing. There is nothing there.
“But then I can remember things from 2010, 2008, 2006. We can go all the way back. But there’s just a dark cloud of a little bit of time where things were just freaking really hard. It was really hard to train. I wasn’t myself.”
Once he got treatment — five years after the initial tick bite that infected him — Miller not only started feeling like himself again, but he turned things around as far as his career was concerned. He still dealt with wins and losses, but Miller was performing back at a high level again, which was robbed away from him while stricken with Lyme disease.
In the five years since he regained full health, Miller has gone 8-5 overall and has also etched his name into the record books as the fighter with the most fights and wins in UFC history.
He’ll look to add to that record when he fights Benitez this Saturday in Las Vegas, but Miller isn’t slowing down. He has no plans of retiring anytime soon.
Of course, Miller understands that he’s competing at an uncommon age for the UFC, especially in the lightweight division, but he’s also feeling rather spry despite a few bumps and bruises along the way. He actually credits part of his ability to keep going to what he learned about himself coming out on the other side of his Lyme disease diagnosis.
“I learned how to protect myself and pick the days — today’s the day, I feel great, we’re going,” Miller explained. “Some days it’s like, today’s the day I’m protecting myself and we’re getting through the workout, we’re going to try to learn some things, play with some new things, not get injured, not get hurt, nothing, don’t let anything stupid happen. I think being able to make those decisions and being mature about it and realizing, especially now, I’m old. I’m an old lightweight. I wasn’t planning on fighting into my 40s.
“When I started fighting, there were no 40-year-old lightweights. So I was like, ‘At 34, we’re good, we’ll call it.’ And here we are. And it’s been off of a little bit of luck, a little bit of genetics, but also making the right decisions in training and being smart about pushing myself.”
As far as his accolades, Miller doesn’t sit around staring at his Wikipedia page and marveling at the things he’s done in his career. He appreciates when people praise him for those accomplishments, but Miller probably won’t take much time to reflect until he actually does hang up his gloves for good.
That said, Miller knows he’s a rarity in a sport where fighters are often there and gone in a blink of an eye. Out of thousands upon thousands of fighters competing in MMA, only a select few make it to the UFC, and even fewer stick around for more than a couple of years.
Miller, however, has more than 15 years in the UFC, with 42 fights and 25 wins — thus far — and that definitely counts for something.
“The longevity thing is cool,” Miller said. “I aspired for a bit more when I got into this, but here we are. I’m 4-1 in my last five with four finishes, so I must be doing something right.
“It hasn’t been easy. I’ve tried to figure out how, and how I’ve been able to hang around. Longevity in this sport is not common. At first I was like, luck and genetics. I was kind of born to be bounced around and I’ve been lucky on more than a few occasions of not sustaining really bad injuries. But there’s also some design to it, too.”
When all is said and done, Miller will undoubtedly make a strong case as a UFC Hall of Famer, although some of his contemporaries like former two-division champ Daniel Cormier have argued that time served shouldn’t necessarily be considered as a mark of success.
Miller disagrees, especially when he really starts thinking about everything he’s done throughout his UFC career.
“I feel messed up saying it, but what I’ve done might be more impressive than just winning a title,” Miller said. “Because there have been fighters, they got a title shot off of whatever, The Ultimate Fighter show, this or that and they had an opportunity. I was 9-1 in the UFC and nobody went on a seven-fight win streak, and [I] didn’t get the opportunity. It was because of timing and rematches for the title, you had two sets of rematches and then injuries. Things got drug out. And there have been some fighters that won it, they were kind of gifted an opportunity.
“Obviously there are plenty that didn’t and there are plenty that fought in the trenches and earned their opportunity and went on to defend the title. I’m not comparing 42 fights, 43 fights to that. But longevity, it hasn’t been easy.”
Miller also recognizes that the UFC wouldn’t have kept him around for this long without earning it. That’s why he confesses that a spot in the Hall of Fame would be a great exclamation point on his career.
“The reason that I am still here is because of the way that I fight,” Miller said. “It’s not because of things I say at press conferences. It’s only because of the way that I step into the octagon and fight.
“You could be cut for any reason. One loss. People have been cut off after wins because they do stupid stuff. To be around this long and to share the octagon with the list of guys that I have, it will be an honor if I do get that opportunity to be in the Hall of Fame.”