Jalin Turner has hung up his gloves at just 29 years of age following defeat at UFC 313.
The lightweight contender suffered a first round triangle choke submission loss to Ignacio Bahamondes on Saturday night in Las Vegas.
It marked his second consecutive defeat and his fourth setback in his last five fights.
In the immediate aftermath, Turner made his way over to press row to inform the media that he was retiring from the sport before joining Sportsnet’s Aaron Bronsteter to explain his decision backstage.
“I was already entertaining the thought, retiring after UFC 300,” said a tearful Turner.
“I took a little bit of time off, kept training, just trying to get my mind right, focusing on my mental health.”
Turner then took a long pause as he tried to compose himself.
“It’s hard man,” he added. “Fighting is hard, I have been doing it for 12 years, and you have either got to be all in or not.
“Even being in there now, I wasn’t fully all on in like I thought I would be.
“The decision to stay was honestly based on this fight. I felt like I would get the win.
“I watched him, he is an up and coming prospect, he deserved the opportunity and I felt like I would have got my hand raised and I didn’t.
“It’s emotional right now, but I have been thinking about this for the last eleven months.
X – Aaron BronsteterTurner was overcome with emotion after announcing his retirement[/caption]
“I didn’t know how much longer I wanted to keep doing this. My kids are getting older, I don’t want to keep taking damage, training camps are hard.
“Life has really been taking a toll the last eleven months so I need to step away for a little bit, maybe even forever.
“At this point, the competition keeps getting better and I keep getting older so I’m going to sit down and think about it, but I think that is it…
“I haven’t ever been in a mental zone where I’ve said I don’t want to fight, no matter what came at me.
“But the fire is just not there. Even in the submission, I felt like I could have got out of the submission if I was who I was before.
“I would have fought tooth and nail, I would have gone to sleep. I felt like that wasn’t me tonight and it hasn’t been me for a while.”
Turner (14-9) entered the fight as the No.13 lightweight in the world and reached as high as No.9 in the UFC rankings after knocking out King Green in December 2023.
Prior to that, he suffered back-to-back tight split decision losses to Mateusz Gamrot and Dan Hooker while a second round TKO loss to Renato Moicano came after at UFC 300.
‘The Tarantula’ has always shown immense promise but after trading wins and losses with the divisional elite, it appears his time in the sport is done.
UFC 313 main card results
A new champion
Magomed Ankalaev (c) defeats Alex Pereira by unanimous decision
Justin Gaethje defeats Rafael Fiziev by unanimous decision
Ignacio Bahamondes defeats Jalin Turned by first-round submission
Amanda Lemos defeats Iasmin Lucindo by unanimous decision
Mauricio Ruffy defeats King Green by first-round knockout
