New Zealand’s James Te Huna, who headlined the UFC’s debut in his home country in 2014, has now retired after 20 years in combat sports. He didn’t fight for nearly two years afterwards, and then lost in the first minute to Steve Bossé at UFC Fight Night: Hunt vs. Mir in March. It was the fighter’s fourth loss in a row, and at age 34, he wisely has decided to retire.

The announcement came via Facebook.

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.

Jamie

We wish Te Huna all success in his future efforts.