James Te Huna will be fighting for his Ultimate Fighting Championship existence when he headlines the mixed-martial-arts promotion’s first event in his native New Zealand on Saturday.

With two straight losses, Te Huna knows his UFC career will be on the line when he fights Nate Marquardt. He has dropped weight class from light heavyweight to middleweight since his last-start loss to Mauricio Rua in Brisbane last December.

"It’s very important," Te Huna  said. "I’ve been put in this position before where I had to win this fight otherwise it’s not going to look so good. All I want to do is be focused on this fight, put everything behind me and don’t worry about the losses.

"Every fight your career is on your line. If you do something wrong or if you don’t perform really well it’s not going to look too good. I could have a loss but perform really well and then it’ll be all right for me. It’s about going out there and performing at my best."

Te Huna was on a four fight winning streak before the consecutive losses and said he had rather lose fighting the best instead of padding his record. One of his losses came against Glover Teixeira, who lost a light heavyweight title bout in April.

"I was put in a position to ask for guys but I was on a bit of a winning streak before hand," Te Huna said. "Teixeira was the one everyone was avoiding and dodging. That’s been the type of fighter I am. If I ask for someone I want to ask for someone good. That’s what got me the fight in the first place. If you want to protect your record and pad your record full of guys you know you’re going to beat, if you’re a level above them it’s a waste of time fighting."

Marquardt hasn’t won a fight since July 2012, losing his past three appearances in the octagon, including consecutive first-round knockout losses.

While Te Huna has since moved to Sydney, he was the first New Zealand-born fighter to appear in the UFC.  He was brought up half an hour south of Auckland –    where the fights will be held – and moved to Sydney when he was at the age of 17. Te Huna has been adjusting to his first headline fight.

"Headlining the fight is hard because there is so much to do," Te Huna said. "You just want to finish on your training and preparing for the fight but you can’t switch off."

Te Huna has been in New Zealand for the past month preparing and has been sparring the likes of Sutherland shire-based fighter Robert Whittaker, who will fight Mike Rhodes on the undercard.  He, too, has lost his past two fights.