Nick Newell couldn’t stay retired for long.
Newell last competed back in Oct. 2015. He earned a unanimous decision victory over Tom Marcellino. After the fight, “Notorious” announced his retirement. Yesterday (Sept. 11), Newell announced that he was coming out of retirement to fight under the Legacy Fighting Alliance (LFA) banner.
Speaking to MMAFighting.com, Newell explained why he’s making his return:
“At the end of the day, I missed it. I’m a competitive person, I enjoy the competition, it’s something that you can’t quite describe unless you’ve done it. But I wanted to make sure I was doing it for the right reasons and now it feels right.”
Newell then said he hadn’t considered what he’d be doing outside of fighting.
“I was never able to think about my future. I never had time. I got my college degree, the fighting thing took off, and one thing happened after another. I bought a condo and it was just, it’s not like I was making millions of dollars right? I had to fight three times a year just to be able to pay my bills.”