New Zealand’s James Te Huna has announced his retirement from the sport of mixed martial arts at 34 years of age.
Te Huna has been fighting in the UFC for the past six years and compiled a 5-5 record along the way.
His UFC run started brightly, with his only loss in his first six fights coming against a future title contender, Alexander Gustafsson, but he’s since suffered four losses in a row, all in the first round, including a KO defeat in just 52 seconds against Steve Bosse last time out.
After having some time out, Te Huna has now decided that for the good of his health this is the right time to hang up his gloves and bring an end to his career with an overall 16-9 professional record.
Read Te Huna’s full statement below.
“Hey guys ..yes I’m alive haha, it’s been a couple months since my last post and I apologise for my absence. I have discovered something that is tough to swallow (but made a lot of sense) since the last fight but this recent decision is a positive step towards a healthy future, I hope you can all understand.
I gave it everything I had guys, and those closest to me know how much of my life I gave to competition-I didn’t have the gift when I started..just put in the work to chase a childhood dream. This career has expanded to 20 years and I have/am very grateful for all the help and support that I have received along this amazing journey. I got to learn and gain respect, discipline from martial arts, my culture and my family. Living a healthy lifestyle (minus the hospitals lol). Experiencing the positives and negatives of a sport-I have been through it all and I’ll be using this knowledge in my next venture.
I received a lot of help and I always done my best to give back whenever I could. I would like to encourage the youth to get involved and I will continue to promote. There have been a lot of proud moments-having the opportunity to represent my culture to the world, but most of all being told from the person who I looked up to, my nephew my namesake. Again, thank you guys for all the support and a big thank you to my family.;
Kia ora
Jamie”
