Kiwi mixed martial arts veteran, James Te Huna, announced his retirement via his facebook this afternoon. Te Huna who is 34 years old made his UFC début back in 2010 and was the recipient of one ‘Fight of the Night’ bonus when he beat Joey Beltran in a three round war in 2012.
Te Huna will finish up his career with an impressive 18-9 record despite dropping his last four fights in the UFC and will be remembered for this ferocious knock out ability.
His post reads as follows:
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
Fight News Australia would like to wish James and his family all the very best for the future.
