Ignacio
Bahamondes doesn’t want Jalin
Turner to retire after their fight at UFC
313.
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Bahamondes made a statement by submitting Turner with a slick
triangle in the first round of their UFC 313 clash on Saturday.
Turner then hung up his gloves inside the Octagon and announced his
retirement at just 29 years of age.
Turner’s loss against Bahamondes marked his return to action after
nearly a year. It was also the fourth loss in his last five outings
for “The Tarantula.” Turner elaborated on his retirement decision
in an emotional post-fight interview. Turner revealed that he was
contemplating retirement since his previous loss against Renato
Carneiro at UFC 300 last year. The loss against Bahamondes was
the last straw for Turner, who didn’t feel he was in it as much he
expected he would be.
“You either gotta be all in or not,” Turner told Aaron Bronsteter. “And being in there wasn’t
fully all in as I thought I would be. And the decision to stay or
not was honestly based off this fight for me. I felt like I’ll get
the nod, get the win. I watched him — he’s an up-and-coming
prospect. He deserved the opportunity, and I felt like I would have
gotten my hand raised, I didn’t. I know it’s emotional right now,
but I’ve been thinking about this for the last 11 months if I’m
gonna keep fighting or not.”
However, Bahamondes would like Turner to continue fighting. “La
Jaula” believes Turner still has a lot to offer and even invited
him to train and stay with him in Chicago.
“I told him, ‘Don’t do that. Come on, if you need help, if you need
something, I’m here,” Bahamondes said at the post-fight press conference. “If you want
to come to Chicago and train, just to love it again — I told him he
could stay at my house, no problem. I’m open to help him, our team
is open to help him. I just told him to go back home, just think
about it. But please don’t do it. He just pushed me to my best and
made me so better. And he has still got a lot more to give to this
sport.”
Turner went 7-6 in the UFC with all of his wins coming via
stoppage. Meanwhile, Bahamondes is 6-2 in the UFC and currently on
a three-fight first-round finishing streak.