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Nick Newell is making important strides to be happy, and a big part of that is not engaging with negativity.
Nick Newell has spent much of his career listening to critics and defying expectations, but now he just wants to be left alone.
Newell (16-3) meets Zach Zane (14-9) at Bellator 241 on Friday, March 13. In a 2019 interview with Bloody Elbow, Newell was relieved to be “treated like a human” by Bellator. When asked to follow-up on those comments ahead of Friday’s fight, Newell declined, insisting any past grudges are out of sight and out of mind.
“Everyone gets pissed off at something every once in a while, but I don’t like to bring that negative energy,” he shared. “If someone bothers me I say something. If people don’t like it than whatever. I don’t really hold onto animosity. I’ve had a lot of incidents in life where I’ve been mad at people for things. Or people in my life who hold onto grudges for a little bit too long. I can’t be that type of person. I don’t have anything negative to say about anyone.”
“I think having a kid makes you not really care about other stuff. Does that make sense? I don’t have time to argue with someone on the Internet. I just don’t really care enough about it. All I want in this world, most of the time, is just to leave me alone. Leave me alone and let me be me. I’m going to do what’s right by my family. Everything else is whatever,” he continued. “Mostly, I just want to be happy. Being mad does not make me happy. Starting fights with people over things does not make me happy. What makes me happy is being free to be myself.”
Newell also touched on providing commentary, something he hopes to do more of, alongside Matt Hughes for Premier FC. He also met legendary fighter Mark Coleman.
“Matt Hughes, it was the first time I talked to and met him. He is a very nice man. Obviously he has been through a lot of adversity and took it like a champion. It was really cool getting to share the mic with him,” Newell shared. “Mark Coleman is someone who I never really met before but someone that I’ve been communicating with online for a while. He’s just an O.G. of the game. One of the old school tough guys. The “Godfather of Ground and Pound”. Being surrounded by that time of greatness is always good. You want that type of energy around you.”
Bellator 241 is headlined by a Featherweight Grand Prix title fight between Patricio “Pitbull” Freire and Pedro Carvalho.