“No, it doesn’t bother me,” Miller said. “The fact is, I’ve been open about it, and a lot of athletes aren’t comfortable talking about it because they feel like it’s a chink in their armor. But I was so close, I had made the decision in 2016 that I was ready to retire at UFC 200. And making that choice and then finding out I had Lyme disease and dealing with these other things , it was a long shit. *Royal road out of Lyme. But knowing that I was dealing with something that was beatable and combatable and curable, and not just miles away on my body, it felt like, okay, we have something and we have to deal with it. And I changed my lifestyle and I changed the way I did things. But yes, I was ready. I was getting ready to end it. And, in a way, I feel like it’s kind of taken this little weight off my shoulders, it’s like, well, I feel comfortable having this conversation. But you know what? Sometimes when it’s like every fight, it’s like, okay, let’s move on.
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Miller laughs, but life in the spring of 2013 was no laughing matter when he contracted Lyme disease. From then until UFC 200, he was only able to put together a record of 3-4, 1 NC, and it felt like the end was near because he didn’t know not why he didn’t feel the same way in the gym or in the Octagon. .
“Lyme is one of those very personal things,” Miller said. “It’s very unique to each individual, how it affects you, and I’ve met a lot of people who I think have had it much worse than me, but it wasn’t easy. And that’s it, I fought every day. I fought against it every day. And for a while, I didn’t know what I was fighting.