(Video) Jake Ellenberger announces his retirement from MMA

21-fight UFC veteran Jake Ellenberger has officially announced his retirement from the sport of mixed martial arts.

“There’s no better place for me to set the gloves down and say it’s time to move on than the same place it started, here at home in Nebraska — here with my family and friends.”

Ellenberger (31-15) revealed his decision to retire inside of the cage immediately following his loss to Bryan Barberena on the main card of tonight’s UFC even in Lincoln, Nebraska — just under an hour away from where he was born in Omaha.

After losing a close fight to Carlos Condit that went to the scorecards in his UFC debut, Ellenberger reeled off six consecutive wins, including a 53-second upset KO of then top welterweight Jake Shields, putting himself into title contention at 170 lbs.

46 pro fights. 21 inside the Octagon.

Thank you for an incredible career, @EllenbergerMMA. #UFCLincoln pic.twitter.com/siowfyFBKu

— UFC (@ufc) August 26, 2018

Following a TKO loss to Martin Kampmann at the one and only TUF Live Finale back in 2012, Ellenberger would go on to defeat Jay Hieron and Nate Marquardt before going on a 2-9 run that included 6 losses via KO/TKO to finish off his UFC career.

Ellenberger stood toe to toe with the best in the business during his decade plus career. The 5-time UFC bonus winner shared the cage with the likes of Robbie Lawler, Rory MacDonald, Stephen Thompson, Matt Brown, Diego Sanchez, Rick Story, Kelvin Gastelum and many more elite welterweights including the aforementioned Carlos Condit, Jake Shields and Martin Kampmann before calling it a career tonight in front of his friends and family.

We here at Fight Booth wish Ellenberger only the best moving forward. It goes without saying that it was an absolute pleasure covering his career inside of the cage.