They call Mark Miller the "Fightshark," and at this point, he might actually be more shark than homosapien. 

Miller's 45-year-old body is a collage, pieces and parts from here and from there laced together with a surgeon's touch.

Exactly one year ago today, on June 23, 2016, he underwent a dual pancreas-kidney transplant. More famously, Miller had surgery to correct his congenital heart defect in 2006, sparking a comeback story that ended with him knocking out Nikolaj Falin at United Glory 14 in Moscow. 

The fight lasted nine seconds. 

Now, on the one-year anniversary of the surgery that will--hopefully--end his longtime health struggles, Miller's made a decision. The days of watching the Shark inside the ring are over. 

"One reason [I want to make this announcement] is because people are still saying I'm going to come back to fighting," Miller told FloCombat. "People forget how old I am, but because of everything I've been through, people think [I will come back again].

"For me, it's closure. I never really had closure. When I first got sick with the heart issues in 2006 and subsequently had the surgery, I didn't get to go out on my own terms...This finalizes it. It's official. It's coming out of my mouth. We're putting it out there to the world to get closure on my career once and for all." 

In a career spanning continents, decades, and brushes with death both literal and figurative, Miller says one moment stands above them all. 

"I have to say [I'm most proud of] the comeback fight in Moscow," Miller said. "Everything that happened in the five-and-a-half years leading up to it, all the ways I got shit on leading up--having the heart surgery, having my mother, father, brother all die, having the horrific car crash I had in Austin, Texas. It all culminated in that one moment.

"I always said, when I come back, all that angst, all the shit I dealt with would come out in one punch, and it did." 

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Miller then continued fighting, losing back-to-back fights in 2012. Following this stretch, he began preparations for Glory 12 in New York City--a Madison Square Garden dream fight realized. The hard-knock kid from Pittsburgh made it to the world's grandest stage. 

Until he didn't. 

As is the case with Miller's life, nothing follows a common path. Normality is abnormal, and his rhythm was disrupted once more. 

"As a boxing fan my whole life, fighting at Madison Square Garden, that's the mecca," Miller said. "But it didn't work out. When I was prepping for that fight, I got sick, they took me to the doctor and got me antibiotics. They didn't work, they put me on stronger meds, and it apparently shut down my kidney and shut down my heart as well. 

"They found what they initially thought was a blood clot. But it turned out it was an aortic aneurysm, which has nothing to do with the heart problem I was born with, that I had surgery for." 

After getting pulled from Glory 12, Miller would undergo a vital series of events, leading him to his current, healthy state. 

"I went from having three separate surgeries that would play out basically over a two-year timeline to having one surgery and two transplants in one day," Miller said. "Then I recovered from that. I had the surgery on June 23, 2016, and they cleared me to start training again for 2017."

Looking back, the surgeries and the medical struggles become baffling at a certain point when talking to Miller. He's coded three times. Without intervention from trained professionals, Miller would be long gone. That's a fact. 

With him, one problem becomes four, a surgery follows, and then...he's back on his feet, doing his thing and pushing forward. 

"I consider myself the luckiest unlucky person alive," Miller said. "My life has been just one semi-disaster after another."

But in the face of disaster, Miller chuckled time and again, brushing away the impossible and continuing to forge his path. As much as the word "miracle" will get thrown around, Miller thinks it's simpler. He's not normal. Logistics don't apply to the Fightshark. 

"Normal people don't fight," he said. "What do you want to do for a living? 'I want people to hit me and I want to hit people.' But I picked that. I was good at it, and I made a career out of it. 

"Is there a part of me that feels like I could still do it? Yeah. Of course. I'm a little bit crazy like that. But there are too many reasons not to this time." 

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Making his decision easier, Miller enjoys something resembling stability for the first time in perhaps ever. His girlfriend, Minnesota Lynx center Temi Fagbenle, boasts an incredible story of her own, and he looks forward to building their lives together as he heads into retirement. 

"My focus is traveling. I'm able to do that now," he said. "I have a very interesting girlfriend whose career I can follow. She's going to play here in Minnesota then she will go overseas to play in Poland. Where she's at is an hour EuroRail from Berlin, an hour from Prague and two hours from Vienna, so it's pretty strategically located for traveling as well. And I have a special relationship with Europe because I lived there, I trained there, I fought there.
 
"I'm also turning my book into a film, so I'm a part of that process right now."

The monster kickboxer goes out with a 15-8-1 record inside the ring and a 3-0 record against death.