The 36-year-old pioneer of the sport pulled the pin on his career after losing to Omari Akhmedov at UFC Fight Night in Melbourne but said he knew his time was up after a controversial loss to Alex Morono in early January.

He finished his career with a professional record of 22 wins, 10 losses and one draw, and while most of us would marvel at being on the UFC stage for more than six years, Noke says he’s not one to reflect too much.

“I’ve been enjoying retirement. I’ve had a proper Christmas break with my family for the first time in a long time and I’ve been doing plenty of surfing,” he said.

“I haven’t really looked back too much on my career but I do realise that I’ve been very fortunate to have done what I’ve done.

“But being a fighter is a pretty selfish career choice in one way. It’s now time to focus on my family and not myself.”

One thing Noke has realised in the weeks since his final bout is just how banged up his body has become.

Serious shoulder and knee injuries ravaged him between 2012 and 2015 and it is only now that he is getting rest and relaxation that he realises just how badly he was hurting.

“My shoulders, my back, my wrists,they’re all sore,” he said.

“Because I was constantly training and fighting I never really got the chance to assess how sore I really was.”

Noke said he realised his time in the UFC was up when he lost a split decision to Morono at UFC 195 in Las Vegas.

From that point on his hunger for the sport diminished a little.

“I wasn’t happy with my last three fights, starting with Morono, even though I still think I won that fight,” he said.

“After that I spoke to my dad, and I took a fight in South Dakota and lost that too.

“My last fight I took because it was in Australia and I fought simply to fight, not to win, that hunger had gone a little and that made the decision pretty easy for me.

“Fighting is 80 per cent mental and when you’re heart isn’t fully in it then you become vulnerable. It eats me away a little bit that it ended like that but the sport has given me an amazing life.”

Noke’s list of training partners during his time working at the renowned Team Jackson in Albuquerque is a who’s who of mixed martial arts.

Along the way Noke has sparred with the likes of Jon Jones, arguably the greatest pound-for-pound fighter in the promotion’s history, as well as former womens bantamweight champion Holly Holm.

The latter, of course, was responsible for the greatest upset in UFC history when she defeated Ronda Rousey in Melbourne on the same card as Noke destroyed Peter Sobotta with a front body kick.

“People ask me about Jon, or Holly, or ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone because they see them as these awesome elite athletes," he said.

“It’s funny because to me, they’re my mates. They’re great people who I’ve worked closely with in order to get where I got to in the sport.”

Noke returned to Dubbo just prior to Christmas for a couple of days with family, and plans on returning early in the new year.

Now entrenched in working at a training facility in Queensland, he is keen to bring along the next wave of UFC stars from Australia.

“I’m loving the coaching because it means I’m not walking away from the sport completely. I’m not fighting anymore but I’m still heavily involved,” he said.

“There’s so many people I’d like to thank who have helped me but one in particular is Brendon Dunstan.

“He used to pick me up every morning and take me to the gym, and he also taught me to pinch my pennies so I could afford to go to the USA in the very early days.