Jim Miller Returns at UFC 328 for 47th Career UFC Fight

Jim Miller is back on Saturday night at UFC 328 in Newark, New Jersey, where he will fight Jared Gordon in a lightweight bout and make his 47th career UFC appearance. He is chasing his 28th UFC victory, but the fight carries a different weight after his teenage son beat cancer.

Jared Gordon Meets Miller

Miller enters the cage after a stretch that took him out of the usual fight-week routine and into hospital visits, chemotherapy appointments and radiation sessions for his son Wyatt. The return is his first fight since Wyatt beat cancer, putting the matchup against Gordon into a far more personal frame than a standard lightweight booking.

That is a sharp turn for a fighter whose career has been built on staying available. Miller is tied for second with the most finishes and most submissions in UFC history, and the next result he is after is a number: win No. 28 inside the UFC. Saturday gives him another shot at it against Gordon in Newark.

Wyatt Miller's Treatment

Wyatt Miller was diagnosed with rhadbomyosacroma after he said last July that it felt like he had something stuck in his eye. The cancer cells were tucked into his left eye socket and sinus area, and he went through two courses of chemotherapy and five weeks of proton radiation at Rutgers University Cancer Institute.

Jim Miller said the rapid response mattered because the illness was in a place where it could have spread to the lungs. He also said, “The vast majority of it came out when they did the biopsy,” and, “It kind of just popped out on its own.”

Wyatt will still need scans and MRIs about every three months for the next year or so, along with cancer check-ups for rhadbomyosacroma well into his 20s. Miller said, “He's just a stud,” and, “He's just an amazing young man.”

Miller Family In Newark

Miller said he will be fighting for the first time since his son beat cancer, and his wife and their four children, including Wyatt, were expected to attend the bout. He also laid out the approach that has carried him through a long UFC career: “I'm not just out there just to win,” and “I'm out there to win to make me happy; to make me excited with the way that happens.”

For Miller, the bout is both a return to work and a mark on the ledger. He will be making more than his 47th UFC fight while trying to add another victory, and he will do it in Newark with his family in the building and a year of medical appointments still ahead for Wyatt.