Who is Nick Newell? The One Handed MMA Fighter Everyone is Talking About

Who is Nick Newell? The One Handed MMA Fighter Everyone is Talking About

Nick Newell is popularly known as the one-handed fighter. He was born on March 17, 1986, as Nicholas Newell in Milford, Connecticut, and is a mixed martial artist. You may wonder why he is called the “one-handed fighter”, but the reason is obvious.

Newell, who took the lightweight division of the MMA by storm, is so named because he was born with a condition, or rather a deformity, that ensured he had no left fist. His predicament is known in medicine as “congenital amputation”. It is a condition he was born with and which makes it impossible for him to handle objects with his left arm as he would have liked to do. He has only what might be called “two muscle drives” at the tip of the disabled arm, which he has learned to use as efficiently as possible to complement the efforts of his right hand.

When you look at him, you wonder why he chose a career in wrestling, because it would have been a difficult task from the beginning. But in response, Nick would like to refer you to the more than 300 wrestling victories he has achieved from high school to college. He would also tell you that he has a record of 14 wins from his 16 MMA fights. What more lessons does one need to learn about determination and passion to succeed than the example we have in Nick Newell?

Who is Nick Newell? The One Handed MMA Fighter Everyone is Talking About
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In your defense (for those who asked the question), Newell also played other sports before he settled for wrestling. He played football, baseball, and basketball. He says he chose wrestling because he wanted to learn how to defend himself. When he joined the wrestling team at his high school – Jonathan Law High School – he lost serially and was thinking of quitting, but he credits his parents, especially his mother, for spurring him on. He remembers how they told him to go out there and strive to get everything he wanted as if he didn’t have a disability.

He got back on his feet despite his losses (in most cases he was always nailed to the floor because of his small size at the time) and had an impressive high school career. He continued in the same vein when he enrolled in college at Western New England University in Springfield, Massachusetts. He became captain of the college’s wrestling team, and in college, he also met Brian Myers, who became his roommate. Today Myers wrestles under the brand WWE with the ring name Curt Hawkins.

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Parents

There is sparse information about Nick Newell’s family, but he was raised by a single mother whose name is given as Stacey Newell. She must be the strongest woman in the world to raise her son to what he is today. Disabilities take their toll on the children’s minds, so they no longer have the zeal to fight. But without a male figure in her life, Stacey, who worked as a nurse, has managed to raise a fighter with Nick Newell.

She always told him that he was no different and that he should never refuse a task or an assignment because of his arm. She believed that she had to make him see himself without the disability and with the belief that he could be anything he wanted to be.

Who is Nick Newell? The One Handed MMA Fighter Everyone is Talking About
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Newell’s father, who was absent in his life while he was growing up, now identifies with him after his fame and success in life

Nick Newell MMA Career

As if it wasn’t bad enough to fight with one hand, Nick Newell also found it hard to get his opponents to fight him. His career was on hold and it was a very difficult situation he found himself in. Most opponents would accept his challenge and then withdraw from the proposed fight, and it was about who his next opponent would be, not whether he wanted to fight.

On the one hand, no fighter wanted to carry the label of having won the fight only because the opponent was a one-handed fighter, and on the other hand, there was the fear of losing to the fighter with one hand. In the end, Newell won six fights before becoming a professional in 2009. He won five of the six fights and only lost one.

His first fight after becoming a professional was a TKO victory over Daniel Ford in Cage Fighting Xtreme (CFX) 3 – Rumble in the Jungle on June 20, 2009, and he started fighting in the Xtreme Fighting Championships (XFC) after signing a contract with the promotion and Shark Fights in 2011. He had a 5-0 winning streak and made it 6-0 when he defeated Denis Hernandez in his first XFC fight. He then won his next three XFC fights, defeating Chris Coggins, David Mays, and Eric Reynolds, with his win over Reynolds earning him the XFC Lightweight title.

Who is Nick Newell? The One Handed MMA Fighter Everyone is Talking About
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His winning streak continued in the World Series of Fighting (WSOF) after he signed with the promotion in May 2013. He won against Keon Caldwell and Sabah Fadai before losing his first professional fight in the WSOF Lightweight Championship to Justin Gaethje. He renewed his contract with the WSOF in April 2015 and would win two more fights before announcing his early retirement from MMA with a flawless 13-1 record. However, on March 9, 2018, Nick Newell retired from retirement to fight Sonny Luque, whom he defeated.

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UFC Adventure

Ever since he watched the UFC as a college student, Newell has dreamed of fighting in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). It seemed like his dream would never come true when UFC President Dana White said in 2012 that Newell would ever be allowed to fight in the UFC, citing his disability and fears that it might simply be too dangerous for him.

But six years later, White made a UFC reversal of that position and announced a fight between the one-handed fighter and Alex Munoz in 2018. The fight, whose winner will receive a UFC contract, was to be staged in the Tuesday Night Contender Series on 24 July 2018. He lost the fight by unanimous decision, his second defeat in 16 attempts, but he is not giving up his dream of getting a UFC contract and fighting for promotion.

Relationship – Is He Married?

Nick Newell is currently married to his longtime girlfriend Danielle Walsh. Details of their relationship are not known, but Walsh is a speech pathologist and is expecting her first child in November 2018.

Quick Facts About Nick Newell

Name: Nicholas Newell

Known as: Nick Newell, Notorious

Profession: Wrestling, MMA Fighter

Birth Date: March 17, 1986

Horoscope: Pisces

Birth Place: Milford, Connecticut

Nationality: American

Spouse: Danielle Walsh

Children: Expectant

Height: 5 ft 10 in (178 cm)

Weight:  155 lb (70 kg)

Eye Color: Dark Brown

Hair Color: Black

Net Worth: N/A