Plenty of fighters on the regional circuit, and even a good number who have made their UFC debut, work second jobs to supplement their income. Fortis MMA’s Miles Johns is no exception to this statement. However, his work is a little different from the average up and coming fighter.

“Me and my wife own a goldendoodle business called Doodles in the Ruff,” Miles explained. “It’s just a small scale goldendoodle business, where we have a couple of moms that we breed and we provide families with beautiful dogs.” 

So how exactly does a guy who punches people in the mouth for a living get into the business of breeding goldendoodles? In the case of Johns, it was a family business. 

“[My wife’s] mom has been doing it for a long, long time,” he said. “So when her and I moved to Texas it was just kind of a side hustle thing we got and it’s going great.”

But that doesn’t mean he’s just an assistant in the operation. In fact, Johns provides more services than just breeding your next family pooch - he helps to get them ready to go home. 

“I do some dog training as well with some of the puppies that we send home,” he said. “I offer people different training packages if they want to have their puppy trained.”

And while running a dog breeding business may seem like a full-time job in and of itself, that’s not the only other place he has his hands in. 

“I also finished nursing school this past December and I passed the NCLEX [a nationwide exam for licensure of nurses],” Johns said.

After passing his exams, Johns was looking to start his career as a nurse. That is of course until Dana White came calling. 

“I actually had a job lined up, it was supposed to start pretty much right after the Contender Series in July,” Johns said. “They called me the day of the fight, while I was in the hotel lobby and they were like ‘hey, we’re trying to set up your orientation, but haven’t heard back from you.”

Although he asked for an extension on his decision, the answer came pretty quickly after his fight, which netted him a deal with the UFC.

“I had to turn that job down after the contract because I knew I had to put everything into this,” Johns explained. “I do plan on going back to the medical field after my MMA career, but I only have a short window of time to do this so I gotta go all in.” 

In the meantime, Johns will continue to breed family dogs, with his training taking a front seat to it all. He’ll get to show off the fruits of that labor this Saturday on the ESPN+ prelims of Fight Night: Gaethje vs Cerrone, where he faces off with Cole Smith.