Nick Newell retires at age 29
“You know, I’m only 29 but I want to have a future, I want to be able to have a good body when I get older. One day, I’d like to have kids and be able to play with them.”
As Nick Newell trains at a gym just a few towns over from mine, I have known him for a long time. Nick is a tremendous fighter, and he is a tremendous human being.
There are some fighters that get more from the sport than they give. Nick gave more than he got. That’s who he is.
And now he has retired at the age of 29, following a unanimous decision win over Tom Marcellino at WSoF 24 on Saturday night.
“You know, I’m only 29-years-old, but I want to have a future, I want to be able to have a good body when I get older,” said Newell and transcribed by Stephie Hayne for BE. “One day, I’d like to have kids and be able to play with them. I know that’s kind of an extreme thing, but I didn’t get to where I am today by just being a natural. I’m sorry, this is very emotional for me. I got to where I am from hard work, and that takes a toll on your body. These past couple training camps have been really hard for me, and just really hard on my body. It’s just…it’s just my time.
“I don’t want to be a guy that just fights for a…for a paycheck [obviously overcome with emotion at this point]. I want to be a guy that fights because he loves it. I don’t want to cheat myself of my best performances, and I don’t feel like I’m the fighter I could be, because my body is just not reacting the same way it used to. I just don’t have it in me anymore, so this is my last one, a hometown fight that I won. It wasn’t the most beautiful thing in the world, but I didn’t really get to train much for this fight. It was injury after injury. I had terrible luck, and uh, it’s time.
“I’ve done this for my past three camps, with injuries all through the whole camp. I came in 20 pounds over the day before weigh-ins and had to lose it all because I couldn’t train. It’s just very rough on my body. I want to have a good life when I get older, and I can’t be fighting anymore.
“Thank you to everyone that’s supported me. I don’t want to give you guys a second rate Nick Newell. I want the best Nick Newell there is and his days are over. It’s time to move on and do something new and share my knowledge with other people.”
Thank you Nick Newell. And for the record, the best Nick Newell has nothing to do with fighting in cage, the best Nick Newell is a man, and a tremendous one.