Nick Newell

Newell was born with congenital amputation of his left arm, which ends just below his elbow. Newell has a very short yet muscular stump of his forearm which he learned from a young age to grasp objects with. Newell was born with his stump and therefore learned to use it like a hand from birth. Newell grew up playing first soccer and then baseball, but pivoted to high school wrestling in Jonathan Law High School.^[3] Upon joining his wrestling team, he thought about quitting after his very first session because it was "the hardest thing I had done in my life", but his mother did not allow him to, and instead he worked hard from then on.^[4]

After graduating from high school, Newell attended Western New England University where he continued wrestling.^[5] He has over 300 victories between high school and college in wrestling (if you include non competition matches in college).^[6]

Newell stated that while growing up, he idolized former Yankees pitcher Jim Abbott, who has no right hand and was an inspiration for Newell to challenge himself.^[7]

His roommate in college was former WWE wrestler Curt Hawkins. They would watch The Ultimate Fighter, which was on the same channel right after WWE Raw, and Newell has said this is what inspired him to take up MMA.^[8]

Before turning professional, he amassed an amateur record of 5 wins, 1 loss. He describes his early MMA career as a struggle, not because he could not win, but because other fighters did not want to fight a one armed fighter. The potential opponents who turned down fights against him felt that it would be a lose-lose situation for them, as if they won, it would've been against a one-armed fighter; if they lost, it would've been against a fighter with one arm. As such, finding quality opponents became a struggle for Newell.^[9]

In 2011, Newell signed a multi-fight deal with both Shark Fights and Xtreme Fighting Championships.^[10] He was supposed to have made his Shark Fights debut at Shark Fights 19, however an injury resulted in him being left off the card.^[11] He had his first bout with XFC at XFC 15: Tribute. The event was renamed 'Tribute' in honour of Nick's friend and fellow XFC signee Abi Mestre, who was killed in a motorcycle accident. Mestre was a close friend and teammate of Newell's who joined Nick last year at the open tryouts for the XFC.^[12]

Newell defeated Denis Hernandez at XFC 15 with a dominant 71 second submission (heel hook) victory. Multiple videos and sources covered the fight, with many videos of the whole fight being posted on multiple MMA websites, as well as being shared across many Facebook and Twitter pages worldwide.^[13]

He did an interview with Bleacher Report to talk about the fame he has been getting since his first televised fight at the XFC event. According to him, all the videos of the fight combined have reached around 4,500,000 views.^[14]

Newell then defeated Chris Coggins via majority decision in what was Newell's biggest test in his MMA career so far.^[15]

Newell defeated David Mays at XFC 19 after landing a big left knee on Mays chin, rendering him unconscious.^[16]

He next fought for the vacated XFC Lightweight title at XFC 21 against Bellator veteran Eric Reynolds.^[17] Newell won the fight via submission in the first round and took the XFC Lightweight Title in the process.^[18]

On June 14, he was scheduled to defend his XFC title against Scott Holtzman, however Newell turned down the fight stating that he only wants to fight ex-UFC fighters. Newell would be stripped of his belt.^[19]

On May 28, 2013, Newell signed a multi-fight contract with World Series of Fighting.^[20] WSOF President Ray Sefo hinted that Newell will be featured on the upcoming WSOF 4 & 5 cards against an opponent who has yet to be named. On June 20, it was announced that Newell would fight Keon Caldwell at World Series of Fighting 4.^[21] He won the fight via submission in the first round.

For his second fight with the promotion, Newell faced Sabah Fadai at World Series of Fighting 7: Karakhanyan vs. Palmer on December 7, 2013. Again, he won the fight via submission in the first round.

Newell challenged Justin Gaethje for the WSOF Lightweight Championship at WSOF 11.^[22] He lost the fight via knockout in the second round, suffering the first defeat of his professional career.

On February 13, 2015, it was announced that Newell has signed a new four-fight contract with WSOF.^[23]

After his first loss, Newell returned to the promotion on April 10, 2015, at WSOF 20. He faced Joe Condon and won the back-and-forth fight by unanimous decision.

Newell returned to the promotion on October 17, 2015, at WSOF 24. He faced Tom Marcellino and won the back-and-forth bout by unanimous decision. After the fight Newell announced his retirement from MMA.^[24]

Newell came out of retirement on March 9, 2018, when he met Sonny Luque in a lightweight main event at LFA 35 in Houston. The event aired on AXS TV. Newell won the contest via tapout due to a neck crank at 2:10 of the first round.

On April 25, 2018, it was announced that Newell would be featured on Dana White's Contender Series 14. He faced Alex Munoz on the July 24 edition of the series, and lost the fight by unanimous decision.

On April 15, 2019, it was announced that Newell has signed with CES MMA and would be making his promotional debut against Kalvin Hackney at CES MMA 56 on May 31, 2019.^[25] However, Hackney was forced to withdraw from the bout and was replaced by Antonio Castillo Jr.^[26] Newell submitted Castillo Jr. in the first round with a rear naked choke.

On July 23, 2019, it was announced that Newell had signed a single-fight deal with Bellator MMA. Newell's debut took place at Bellator 225 against Corey Browning on August 24.^[27] He won the fight via an arm triangle submission in the first round.

On September 18, 2019, Bellator president Scott Coker announced on his social media that Newell had signed a four-fight contract with the organization.^[28][29] In his first fight on that contract, Newell faced Manny Muro at Bellator 232 on October 26, 2019.^[30] He lost the back-and-forth fight via split decision.

Newell was expected to face Zach Zane at Bellator 241 on March 13, 2020.^[31] However, the whole event was eventually cancelled due to the prevailing COVID-19 pandemic.

Newell faced Bobby King at Bellator 260 on June 11, 2021.^[32] He lost the fight via split decision.^[33]

Newell and his wife have two sons, Wyatt (born 2018) and Brady (born 2020).^[34][35]

Newell's life story is the focus of the film Notorious Nick, where he is played by Cody Christian.^[36]

Newell currently runs an MMA school called Fighting Arts Academy in Milford, Connecticut.^[37]

• World Series of Fighting
  • 2013 Submission of the Year
• Xtreme Fighting Championships
  • XFC Lightweight Championship (One time; former)

• List of male mixed martial artists

• Professional MMA record for Nick Newell from Sherdog