Jim Miller may be headed for surgery after revealing a severe eye injury suffered during his fight against Alexander Hernandez at UFC Vegas 69.
According to Miller, he had been suffering from blurred vision in the wake of his loss. That led to a visit with his ophthalmologist, who detailed the extent of his injury.
“So an exciting development, depending on how you define exciting,” Miller said on Instagram. “I just got back from the eye doctor. That’s why I look like I was smoking parmesan cheese off the floor with the president’s son. I’ve got a traumatic cataract in my right eye.
“The doctor said that it might get a little bit better, but at this point — I mean it’s blurry even at half an arm’s length, but 12-feet away to the end of the room, if I close my left eye, I can’t really read the letters on the archery target. But I can see a motherf***** standing in front of me, so maybe we’ll kick the can down the road a little bit, a couple of months. We’ll schedule surgery for August of 2024.”
The American Academy of Ophthalmology defines a traumatic cataract as “a clouding of the lens that may occur after either blunt or penetrating ocular trauma that disrupts the lens fibers. Most traumatic cataracts are intumescent, but their type and clinical course depend on trauma mechanism and the integrity of the capsular bag.”
“My biggest concern is that motherf***** behind me,” Miller said pointing to his hunting equipment. “There is no way that I can see anything while looking through a peep right now. No f****** way. I’m right eye dominant. Anything that requires an eye alignment, I do right handed from archery to shooting whatever, playing pool, yeah so that’s fun. But we’ll see where we go.”
Based on Miller’s injury, he likely suffered blunt trauma to his eye from a punch or kick during the fight. A mild traumatic cataract can sometimes heal on its own, but “if the cataract must be removed, the clouded lens will be extracted surgically and replaced with a clear artificial lens.”
Miller mentioned the possibility of surgery, though it doesn’t appear he’ll be undergoing any procedure right away.
Miller, who holds the record for the most wins in UFC history with 24, has stated numerous times that he wanted to compete at least until UFC 300, which would follow appearances at UFC 100 and UFC 200. It’s unknown at this time if the eye injury could potentially disturb those plans as Miller continues to recover and await further diagnosis.