(Newell chokes out Eric Reynolds at XFC 21 last December. Photo courtesy of Brian Siskind via facebook.com/nicknewellmma)
World Series of Fighting officials have confirmed with MMAFighting.com that they’ve signed undefeated lightweight and former XFC champion Nick Newell to an exclusive multi-fight contract. Newell’s debut date and first opponent haven’t been announced yet, although WSOF executive vice president Ali Abdel-Aziz suggested that Notorious Nick’s promotional debut will likely happen in August or September.
(Newell chokes out Eric Reynolds at XFC 21 last December. Photo courtesy of Brian Siskind via facebook.com/nicknewellmma)
World Series of Fighting officials have confirmed with MMAFighting.com that they’ve signed undefeated lightweight and former XFC champion Nick Newell to an exclusive multi-fight contract. Newell’s debut date and first opponent haven’t been announced yet, although WSOF executive vice president Ali Abdel-Aziz suggested that Notorious Nick’s promotional debut will likely happen in August or September.
CAGEPOTATO: I’m here with CagePotato favorite Nick Newell, Nick how are you doing?
NICK NEWELL: Good, good, I’m glad to be on the website again. I’m a huge CagePotato fan, and you guys have always had my back, so I really love the site, and I love that I’m getting more press from you guys.
Well, we’re big fans of you. Let’s talk about Tap Cancer Out, and this organization that you’ve aligned yourself with.
Jon Thomas who runs Tap Cancer Out is a longtime training partner of mine and a good friend. He’s a great guy and he’s got a great cause going. Cancer affects a lot of people, and I’m sure everybody knows someone who’s had cancer. A former training partner of mine had cancer, and I have family members who have had it, and it’s terrible. Any way you can contribute and help people out that have it is great.
During your MMA career there have been a lot of people who just didn’t want to fight you because of your physical attributes. Talk to us about some of the challenges you’ve faced getting to where you are now, as a 9-0 fighter.
It was a crazy journey, it took a long time — a lot longer than I would have liked — but the whole time while I wasn’t fighting, I was training and getting better and better. At first I got fights, and then I started beating people and then no one wanted to fight me. And they said, “Oh, it’s because you have one hand,” or whatever, but they were just trying to duck me, I think. And now that I’m fighting for the XFC, I get to fight really top-level guys, and everybody’s calling me out, so it’s different.
So what’s next, are you going to stay with XFC, or will you start looking at bigger promotions and try to get your name out a little more?
CAGEPOTATO: I’m here with CagePotato favorite Nick Newell, Nick how are you doing?
NICK NEWELL: Good, good, I’m glad to be on the website again. I’m a huge CagePotato fan, and you guys have always had my back, so I really love the site, and I love that I’m getting more press from you guys.
Well, we’re big fans of you. Let’s talk about Tap Cancer Out, and this organization that you’ve aligned yourself with.
Jon Thomas who runs Tap Cancer Out is a longtime training partner of mine and a good friend. He’s a great guy and he’s got a great cause going. Cancer affects a lot of people, and I’m sure everybody knows someone who’s had cancer. A former training partner of mine had cancer, and I have family members who have had it, and it’s terrible. Any way you can contribute and help people out that have it is great.
During your MMA career there have been a lot of people who just didn’t want to fight you because of your physical attributes. Talk to us about some of the challenges you’ve faced getting to where you are now, as a 9-0 fighter.
It was a crazy journey, it took a long time — a lot longer than I would have liked — but the whole time while I wasn’t fighting, I was training and getting better and better. At first I got fights, and then I started beating people and then no one wanted to fight me. And they said, “Oh, it’s because you have one hand,” or whatever, but they were just trying to duck me, I think. And now that I’m fighting for the XFC, I get to fight really top-level guys, and everybody’s calling me out, so it’s different.
So what’s next, are you going to stay with XFC, or will you start looking at bigger promotions and try to get your name out a little more?
XFC has a lot of great things going on, and I’m glad to be a part of them. UFC and Bellator have great things going on too; they’re great organizations. I just want to fight the best guys in the world, so whoever’s going to give me the opportunity to do that and challenge myself, and give me a chance to cement my spot as one of the best, that’s where I want to be. I’m ready for all comers right now.
Yeah, the UFC is the biggest league in the world. If you play football, you want to play in the NFL. If you play baseball, you want to play in the MLB. The UFC is that for MMA, so of course I want to fight there. And I think I’ve done a lot more than a lot of people have that get in. I think I’ve earned my chance. But life’s not fair. He [Dana White] wants to say just because of the way I was born that he’s worried that I’m gonna get hurt, and I think that’s kind of ridiculous, because it’s a sport where people get hurt all the time. I’ve proven that I’m more than capable of competing at a very high level. I’m not invincible, anything can happen, but I can beat a lot of the guys there now, and I’m only getting better every day. If they put me in there, I would immediately establish myself as one of the better guys in the division, without a doubt.
Shifting gears a little, the Olympic wrestling controversy has dominated headlines lately. Can I get your opinion on that?
Yeah, man, I think it’s ridiculous! Wrestling is the first sport. Wrestling and track & field are the Olympics, you know? And I think it’s kind of ridiculous that they replace it with, like, golf. There are plenty of opportunities to make money in golf. The ultimate goal in golf is not to win an Olympic gold medal. But when you start wrestling, every kid’s dream is to be an Olympic gold medalist. That’s the ultimate goal, and to take that away from people who have been working so hard…
I think the Olympics are turning into a rich man’s games. The whole committee, they’re wealthy people, and they’re adding in things that definitely require hard work, but are more skills than sports. The Olympics should be about actual sports where you push your body to the physical limit, and to have these guys who ride yachts all day, and they sit and eat their caviar, and make their horses dance, and do synchronized swimming — I mean, all those things are hard, but they’re all rich people’s sports. And you have these rich guys on the committee that are getting funded by other rich people who want to see rich people’s sports, and it’s not really fair to the everyday people, you know? Wrestling is the first sport out there. The Olympics aren’t the Olympics without wrestling.
I’ve gotten to meet a lot of Olympians and train with them, and I can tell you that it’s their whole life. I dedicate myself to MMA, they dedicate themselves to wrestling. And wrestling truly is the hardest sport out there. Every year, you watch someone win a gold medal, and see their emotion — it’s especially great when they’re from the USA, but it’s cool with any country — and I can feel for all the hard work those guys put in, man. It’s really a magical thing, and to see that taken away, it’s really going to hurt the sport a lot.
Former CagePotato Proving Grounds winner Nick Newell kicked, suplex-slammed and choked his way to victory in Nashville, TN last night, earning the XFC 155 pound title in the process. As you can see in the fight video above, Newell took out Bellator veteran Eric Reynolds quickly and improved his unblemished record to 9-0.
Reynolds himself has before gone the distance with both Jorge Masvidal and maybe UFC-bound Eddie Alvarez. Newell beating Reynolds in such dominating fashion, then, has to put him one step closer to consideration for the big leagues.
The southpaw Newell began his attack against Reynolds with rear and and lead kicks, both low and high, before closing the distance and getting behind Reynolds with a body lock. From there, Newell maintained control and bided his time before lifting his opponent high up into the air and slamming him face down onto the mat. Newell quickly spun around to get his legs around Reynolds and took his back.
Former CagePotato Proving Grounds winner Nick Newell kicked, suplex-slammed and choked his way to victory in Nashville, TN last night, earning the XFC 155 pound title in the process. As you can see in the fight video above, Newell took out Bellator veteran Eric Reynolds quickly and improved his unblemished record to 9-0.
Reynolds himself has before gone the distance with both Jorge Masvidal and maybe UFC-bound Eddie Alvarez. Newell beating Reynolds in such dominating fashion, then, has to put him one step closer to consideration for the big leagues.
The southpaw Newell began his attack against Reynolds with rear and and lead kicks, both low and high, before closing the distance and getting behind Reynolds with a body lock. From there, Newell maintained control and bided his time before lifting his opponent high up into the air and slamming him face down onto the mat. Newell quickly spun around to get his legs around Reynolds and took his back.
Reynolds stood up with Newell on his back while trying to defend the rear naked choke attempt but could not loosen the soon to be champion’s grip. Reynolds fell backwards onto the ground and submitted to the hold, tapping out. Overcome with emotion, Newell got up, ran around the ring with his arms outstretched before falling to his knees and looking up to the sky.
In case you haven’t been following the career of CagePotato’s own “Proving Grounds” Winner Nick Newell lately, all you have to know is that he is still an undefeated ass-kicking machine. On the heels of his most impressive victory to date over Adam Mays (see above), Newell will be looking to improve to a perfect 9-0 when he takes on the toughest test of his career, Bellator veteran Eric Reynolds, in the main event of XFC 21, which goes down tomorrow night from the Nashville Municipal Auditorium in Tennessee.
Sporting a 16-5 record, Reynolds is no slouch to say the least. Although they were ultimately losing efforts, Reynolds made it three rounds with former Bellator lightweight champ Eddie Alvarez and former Strikeforce lightweight title challenger Jorge Masvidal in back-to-back efforts during his stint with Bellator in 2009. Now riding a three fight win streak, Reynolds will surely have his hands full with Newell, who proved in his victory over Denis Hernandez at XFC 15 (an event headlined by Reynolds) that he is just as deadly on the ground as he is on the feet.
In case you haven’t been following the career of CagePotato’s own “Proving Grounds” Winner Nick Newell lately, all you have to know is that he is still an undefeated ass-kicking machine. On the heels of his most impressive victory to date over Adam Mays (see above), Newell will be looking to improve to a perfect 9-0 when he takes on the toughest test of his career, Bellator veteran Eric Reynolds, in the main event of XFC 21, which goes down tomorrow night from the Nashville Municipal Auditorium in Tennessee.
Sporting a 16-5 record, Reynolds is no slouch to say the least. Although they were ultimately losing efforts, Reynolds made it three rounds with former Bellator lightweight champ Eddie Alvarez and former Strikeforce lightweight title challenger Jorge Masvidal in back-to-back efforts during his stint with Bellator in 2009. Now riding a three fight win streak, Reynolds will surely have his hands full with Newell, who proved in his victory over Denis Hernandez at XFC 15 (an event headlined by Reynolds) that he is just as deadly on the ground as he is on the feet.
You can catch the fight live on AXS TV, which is available for free as an app on your iPhone or iPad. Y’all have them newfangled iPhones, right? *Jeff Foxworthy voice* Did you hear about the iPhone they invented exclusively for rednecks? It only has one app, which tells you how far removed you are from the single women at your next family reunion!
