The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
A lesson in resiliency
His career sidetracked by COVID, Newell continues to inspire
He was born without a left hand. Nick Newell doesn’t need any more lessons in perseverance. He has fought for more than a decade through the unforgiving world of mixed martial arts. He doesn’t need lessons in resilience.
COVID-19 doesn’t care. The weak, the strong, the old, the young, the vulnerable, the seemingly invulnerable, COVID cuts through our health, our wealth, our well-being in every way possible.
So there was the Milford native all set to fight Zach Zane on March 13 on the Bellator 241 card at Mohegan Sun when all hell broke loose in our nation. That was the week COVID became our reality. That was the day President Donald Trump declared a national emergency.
There was no NewellZane I.
Nine days before his Bellator 250 lightweight fight Oct. 29 against Zane at Mohegan Sun, Newell tested negative for COVID. After arriving at the Uncasville casino that Saturday, he was tested again on Sunday morning.
Again, Newell passed. On Wednesday, as he was cutting weight, he was told to test once more.
“This time I failed the test,” Newell said. “I must have gotten it, I don’t know, at the casino or something. I don’t know.”
He thought it was a false positive. He tested again Thursday. That came back positive as well. No Newell-Zane II. “I don’t have any symptoms,” Newell said Monday. “I don’t feel sick at all. I feel good and I feel lucky that none of the people I’ve been around in my normal life have been affected.
“All of my corners tested negative, got another test done over the weekend and all were negative. I’m the only one positive.”
The Bellator staff around Newell also have tested negative.
“My mother-in-law has an in-law suite (in Shelton), so I’m quarantining by myself away from my family,” he said. “Like I said, I feel fine. Good energy. Taste and smell are strong. I should know. I’ve been eating a lot of pizza lately, sad.
“It’s really defeating obviously to me — I’m mentally strong, I’ll be able to deal with it — but the last 21⁄
2 months I really dialed it in. That’s maybe longer than most people do. I want to make sure I’m ready. I trained all year round, basically five months a year in two camps. Do everything. Cut weight. Make weight. I face off. And then …”
No Zane fight. Either time.
“I sacrifice all this time out of my life,” Newell said. “I put my body through these hard training camps and really run myself into the ground. And then it doesn’t happen twice. It stinks, because I feel OK to fight. I also know my experience is different than a lot of other people’s experiences with COVID-19. They may not have had it nearly as easy as I have.”
On July 7, his wife Danielle gave homebirth to their second son, Brady, to avoid any COVID problems at the hospital.
“I have two awesome sons (Wyatt was born in 2018) and haven’t had a chance to interact with them since the Saturday I left for the casino,” Newell said.
It has been a year and a week since Newell, 16-3 as a mixed martial artist, has
fought. He lost that last bout to Manny Muro in a tough split decision at Bellator 232. Newell believes he won, yet he also believes he spread himself too thin before that fight. He had gotten his new gym in Milford, Fighting Arts Academy, going. He worked out like crazy.
“I was tired, my body was tired,” Newell said. “I was over-trained and not efficient. I still think I won the fight, but I’m not a judge. I had too much on my plate.
“That’s why the last two camps I put everything on the backburner. My business. My family. I put the fight first for five months this year, in like the toughest year ever, so I could get ready and basically my family picked up a lot of the weight I wasn’t handling … and then the fight doesn’t happen.”
Nick Newell is now 34. His story is known by many state sports fans and it’s an uplifting one. He was born with a congenital amputation of his left arm — essentially a stub beneath his elbow. He wrestled at Jonathan Law and at Western New England, where he roomed with future WWE star Curt Hawkins, now competing under his birth name Brian Meyers for IMPACT. Newell turned to mixed martial arts. Xtreme Fighting, World Series of Fighting, Legacy Fighting Alliance, UFC, CES and, finally in July 2019 he signed a one-fight deal with Bellator. He beat Corey Browning with an arm triangle submission and got a four-fight contract before the Muro fight.
Bellator paid him a full purse when the March card was canceled. He got a minivan. The money was helpful, because COVID shut down his gym for a time. And this fight?
“They’re going to take
care of me,” Newell said. “I love Bellator.
“Really, from here on out, it’s Bellator or nothing. I’m going to retire with Bellator. They’ve treated me so well. Other organizations have treated me well. They were good, but this is it for me. Bellator is the only show I want to fight for here on out.”
It’s a tough business, inside and outside the cage. Newell did take off 21⁄ years
2
from October 2015 until March 2018 to rest from myriad injuries. I ask him what’s his shelf life?
“Some days you ask me, I’m ready to go until I’m 40,” Newell said. “Other days you ask me, and I wonder if it’s the last year. As of right now, I’m very motivated to fight and keep going and keep making a name for myself. I took those 21⁄
2
years off, but my body obviously isn’t like it was at 20. I still feel good and feel efficient. I feel like I have another good run in me.
“I’m ready to get another fight booked. I’d like to enjoy the holidays with my family, but I feel like I have a lot to prove and feel like not a lot of time to do it. It’s important to me I actually get to compete.”
It has to come, right? Newell vs. Zane: The fight COVID could not KO.
“I actually like the guy,” Newell said. “I think he’s a nice guy. There’s no personal vendetta against him. It’s that I trained so hard to fight you, I’d like to fight you. I put in all this work. You’ve been on my mind so long, man, we have to settle this.
“I’m suspended (until he tests negative). He’s not. I wouldn’t be surprised if he made a quick turnaround for another fight. It stinks. I’m looking forward to fighting him.”
Newell grew up idolizing Yankees pitcher Jim Abbott.
There may have been greater pitched games in the history of baseball, yet none more inspiring than Abbott’s no-hitter in September 1993. The two have become friends.
“He watches all my fights,” Newell said. “He tweets. He’s a supporter, which is just wild for me.
“Every day I get messages and DMs from people asking for advice. They ask me mental questions. I have an obstacle I face, but everyone has obstacles they face. It would be ignorant of me to say my journey is any harder than anyone else’s. It has been difficult. There has been a lot of things I have had to overcome. But to act as if I’m the only one who had to do it would be very naïve.”
The messages he receives, Newell said, are not limited to those without limbs.
“I think it’s that people can see what I’m going through,” he said. “I feel like people relate to that. It puts me in a unique position to encourage people. It’s very cool, because it certainly wasn’t my original goal to be an inspiration or someone people look up to. It might sound better if I said it was. The truth is I didn’t want to be looked at as different. I want to be treated the same as everyone else.
“The older I get, the more mature I get, I realize my limb difference is something that doesn’t define me. It’s not who I am. It’s part of who I am. I have to be comfortable with it. I have to embrace it.”
So he does. And as he sat there alone Monday in Shelton, unable to hug his two boys, he wasn’t learning how to be resilient. He was teaching it.