Despite broken hand and foot, James Te Huna powers through at UFC on FUEL TV 4

[BluenoseGreig]

It looked like James Te Huna was on his way to a third straight first-round knockout win on Wednesday.

Instead, the New Zealander found himself in survival mode just to make it out of the fight with his hand raised against Joey Beltran. He did, in a dominating sweep of the judges' scorecards, but he'll be feeling the effects for a while.

Te Huna (15-5 MMA, 4-1 UFC) on Wednesday beat Beltran in the co-main event of UFC on FUEL TV 4, but after the fight said he broke his hand and foot in the fight.

"Broken hand, broken foot, man," Te Huna told MMAjunkie.com at Wednesday's post-event news conference. "Ain't going to do much with it. But I thought I hit him pretty well. I thought I'd done well for a few rounds, anyways."

Te Huna said he broke his hand and foot midway through the first round. And then, he said, "I had to survive."

Beltran (14-8 MMA, 3-5 UFC) has built a reputation on being one of the toughest guys in the business to finish, and Te Huna saw that first-hand – though his broken hand and foot may have contributed to not being able to stop the "Mexecutioner."

Te Huna clearly had Beltran on the ropes in the first round, but couldn't put him away. Beltran made his return to the UFC after just one fight away from the promotion. After going 3-4 as a heavyweight in the UFC, Beltran was cut after a knockout loss to Lavar Johnson in January – the first knockout loss of his career. He was hoping to have a career transformation at light heavyweight, but Te Huna put that on hold even if he couldn't finish him.

"I was surprised (I couldn't finish him)," Te Huna said. "I hurt him with some of the shots."

But at 3-1 in the UFC's light heavyweight division, with his lone loss coming to contender Alexander Gustafsson, Te Huna continues to make a few waves at 205.

He told MMAjunkie.com he's ready to continue improving and is ready to take on whoever the UFC sees fit to put in front of him. Once he heals up, of course.

"I'm just taking it step by step, and whoever they match me up with, I'm just going to work on that and up my game and try and get better," Te Huna said.

http://mmajunkie.com/news/29650/desp...-fuel-tv-4.mma

[Rich Davie]

I knew he broke his hand in that 1st round... I said the same thing to my friend that I was watching the fights with.

This is the friend of mine who isn't really into MMA, but he watched more of this event than any other so far... maybe I created a new MMA fan for the industry !

[BluenoseGreig]

You gotta keep trying eh!

Te Huna looked very good in the first round, the injury clearly slowed him down in the 2nd and 3rd but he still looked pretty good. He is moving up the division rankings with these wins.