MMA fighter Jalin Turner opens up on journey to UFC, luck with recurring injuries

Jalin Turner crashed to a defeat against Ignacio Bahamondes on Sunday, at UFC 313 inside T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. It was a tough fight for both stars, as Turner got choked on the ground and submitted in the first round.

The fight began on an equal note, with Turner ending on top of Bahamondes, but the former quickly regained control, dropping some downward elbows on Turner's skull before tying him up with his legs. Turner tried to survive, but failed as he crumbled to a triangle choke, and was forced to tap at 2:29 of the opening round.

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Considered to be one of the best fighters currently in UFC, the result will be a huge disappointment for Turner, and the manner in which the fight ended. Speaking to Hindustan Times, Turner was asked about how he got into MMA as a child, and did he have inspirations.

“Yes, I started training a little bit in high school, trying out for the wrestling team. Ended up breaking my finger. I started watching MMA after that. My senior year, I started training with some friends in the backyard, doing like this backyard sparring and boxing. And I fell in love with it. I started training myself in my backyard, watching a lot of YouTube videos. And I was trying to learn all those techniques that they were showing, their instructional videos on YouTube,” he said.

As a child, Turner had plenty of recurring injuries which affected his hand in other sports. “You know, I had a lot of injuries growing up from skateboarding, and I haven't had too many injuries in my MMA career. I've only had two surgeries, luckily. And, you know, it's always been little like bumps and bruises the usual you know, you never go into a fight 100% but just overcome all that and just do my job right,” he said.

Turner is currently ranked No. 13 in the UFC lightweight rankings. The bout also saw Turner announce his retirement after his defeat, and it was in an emotional manner, as he left his gloves in the ring. He ends his career with a professional record of 14-9 at the time of his retirement.