Miller spends most of his days outside of the gym renovating and working on his farm, which he deems a decade-long project. A father of four, Miller and his wife also run around town nonstop taking their kids to the various sports they’re involved in.
“It’s been a little bit of a whirlwind,” Miller said reflecting on the time since his bout with Cerrone. “We have the little farm and we’re trying to get that up to snuff. We bought a 10-year project if we work our asses off. It’s a 150-year-old house. Been working on that and trying to make it a little more “inflation proof” is what I like telling my wife and trying to produce a little bit more for us. Those projects and tinkering with things keep me sane and makes me appreciate training even more.
“Wintertime is when all the kids are in activities, so my wife and I are basically ships in the night passing each other. Everything came to an end at the same time: training camp, the winter sports, and we were doing bathroom renovations at the same time. It’s all coming together, and I’m going to fight and have a little bit of time to take a deep breath and relax. I wouldn’t have it any other way,”
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Miller has devoted more time in the gym these last couple months in preparation for his upcoming bout this Saturday. Miller was originally scheduled to face Gabriel Benitez, who was forced out of the bout last week and replaced with Alexander Hernandez.
While a late opponent change might throw off some fighters’ entire training camp, Miller, who competes in his 53rd professional fight this weekend, has seen it all and is more focused on improving his own skills than worrying about what his opponent might bring to the table.
“I look at every opponent as a new opportunity, a new set of skills to show off my skill set against,” Miller said. “I’ve never been the type to pick this guy or pick that guy [to fight]. At this point I’ve fought them all and I feel like I should be able to deal with anything my opponent throws at me, so it’s really easy for me to have a change in opponent because a majority of my camp is me training to be the best Jim Miller that I can be.
