If you don’t know who Mark Miller is, take the time to read this interview with an amazing fighter and human being. He makes his return to the ring, the first combatant to come back from open heart surgery on May 28th. He’ll also be writing a bi-weekly blog for us, to share his struggles, successes and climb back into the ring. I felt honored to have had the opportunity to interview him.
MMA Valor: “Mark, for those of our readers who might not know your story, can you give some history on you as a fighter?”
Mark Miller: “Sure! My father introduced me to boxing when I was a child. He was an athlete himself, and a big boxing fan. I can remember watching Ali vs. Spinks with him in 1978, and the combination of the excitement, his enthusiasm, and the idea of being in a sport where you only had yourself to rely on thrilled me. I started training in boxing when I was about 6. I started in Tang Soo Do when I was 9, and moved on to Hapkido, then Uechi-ryu, TaeKwondo, and finally kick boxing. I competed in a lot of martial arts tournaments, but got kicked out regularly for “excessive contact”, so I kind of decided I should probably just do it for real. At the time it was really hard to get kickboxing fights, and easier to get boxing fights. I actually started as an amateur boxer when I was 18. I had 9 amateur fights before I went pro. In 1993 I had heard about K-1 and just knew that was what I wanted to do. Andy Hug, Peter Aerts, Maurice Smith, Rob Kaman and Rick Roufus were my greatest influences. I was so amazed watching Andy throw that obliterating axe kick, or Rick with that side kick, Maurice with his cool technical style… I sought out Maurice, and was invited to come train with him. Maurice got me my first K-1 fight, and started the whole ball rolling. I now have 21 professional kickboxing fights. I dipped my toe in the MMA pool, had a few fights, but I came back to kickboxing as I just prefer the stand-up fighting personally. I love to watch and be a fan of good MMA, but this is what I know how to do best. “
