Nick Newell, A Good Fighter Regardless

Nick Newell, on “Beatdown,” discussing his career as a mixed martial artist with one hand:

“Sometimes people come up to me in public and they’re like, ‘You don’t have a hand!’ And I’m like, ‘What! Oh my God, what happened?’ Like, ‘Geez. Thanks for telling me! … I knew I was missing something.’ I don’t really care. If I go to the movies, I’m that dude with one hand that’s watching a movie. It just so happens that I’m beating people up in a cage and a lot of people are paying attention. I’ve come to terms that it will always be a part of who I am and how people know me. I feel like more and more, people are getting away from it a little bit. It turned from, ‘Wow, that guy’s going to fight with one hand,’ to like, ‘Wow, that guy with one hand just won,’ and then it turned to, ‘Wow, he’s pretty good for a guy with one hand,’ and then it just turned to, ‘He’s a good fighter regardless.’”

Reader comments are active below.