World Series of Fighting signs Nick Newell and Jeff Smith
The World Series of Fighting (WSOF) has recently signed two new Featherweight fighters to their ever expanding roster. Last week OnFire Management announced that their fighter Jeff Smith was signed by WSOF and would be fighting on their June 14 fight card featuring former UFC veterans Jon Fitch & Josh Burkman in the main event. (plus other stand-out fighters like Jacob Volkmann, Dan Lauzon, and Rolles Gracie)
Today MMAfighting.com announced that former XFC Lightweight Champion "Notorious" Nick Newell was also signed to the WSOF roster.
Jeff Smith
Jeff Smith fights out of Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania and was on the UFC reality fight show "The Ultimate Fighter Live" (also known as "The Ultimate Fighter 15") In the elimination round to see which fighters make it into the TUF House Jeremy Larsen defeated Jeff Smith by unanimous decision. Central Pennsylvania MMA fans may recognize Smith when he fought D'Juan "Dirty South" Owens at Complete Devastation 5 in Altoona, Pennsylvania back on July 14th 2012. Smith had previously stated at CDMMA 5 that his goal was to return to the UFC and fight for what is widely considered ot be the #1 MMA promotion in the world. By signing with up-and-coming promotion MMA World Series of Fighting Smith will face a higher quality of opponent that could end up with him being in the UFC if he continues his winning ways.
OnFire Management released a statement about Smith getting signed by the WSOF.
The World Series of Fighting can be viewed on NBC Sports channel. Smith's opponent for WSOF 3 has not been announced yet, but the fight card (subject to change) can be seen at http://wsof.com/schedule/ and on the Wikipedia page for the event.
UPDATE: According to OnFire Management's latest press release, Smith Replaces Injured Chris Gruetzemacher Against Jerrod Sanders on the June 14th fight card.
"Notorious" Nick Newell
Nick Newell made MMA news when he was the first "one arm" fighter to compete in MMA. Nick was born with a congenital amputation resulting in him having nothing below his left elbow. He has not let this condition hold him back in life, he competed in wrestling in high school & college - with over 300 victories to his record.
Before turning professional in MMA, Nick amassed an amateur record of 2 wins, 1
loss. He describes his early MMA career as a struggle, not because he
could not win (he is currently undefeated as a pro, with a 9 - 0 record) but because other fighters
did not want to fight a one armed fighter. The opponents who have turned
down a fight against him felt that it would be a lose-lose situation
for them, as if they won, they just beat a one armed fighter, and if
they lost they lost to a fighter with only one arm. One fighter did not
even show up at the weigh-ins because he did not want to fight him. This
became a bit of a struggle for Newell to find good opponents for the
number of fights he'd like to have.
Newell signed with up-and-coming regional promotion XFC. Nick continued to keep his undefeated record and eventually won the XFC's Lightweight Championship. Newell was scheduled to face Scott "Hot Sauce" Holtzman at XFC 24, but controversy erupted and the result was Newell announcing that his contract with the XFC had expired and that he chose not to re-sign with the promotion. Nick claimed that he never agreed to fight Holtzman, as no contract for the fight had ever been signed by him. On the internet radio show MMA Mayhem #66 Newell said that he chose not to re-sign with XFC because he wanted to fight "former UFC fighters" rather than "younger fighters looking to make a name off him" as well as not liking the lengthy time periods (that could be 6 months or longer) between fights.
That same episode of MMA Mayhem had XFC President John Prisco explaining the promotions side of the situation. Prisco said that the promotion had announced match-up between Newell & Holtzman because they felt a deal between XFC and Newell would eventually be worked out.
In the MMAfighting.com article is reported as saying that there is no word just yet on when Newell will make his WSOF debut. However, (WSOF Executive V.P.) Abdel-Aziz said it will "most likely happen in August or
September."
Back when I first heard that Newell was no longer with the XFC, but that a "deal was in the works" I figured it would be with either Bellator MMA or WSOF rather than other promotions because these two MMA promotions made the most sense. Other promotions would either be a lateral move or worse, and while Bellator has more public awareness due to Viacom's heavily promoting the events & a reality show on Spike TV... but MMA World Series of Fighting has the caliber of fighters Newell was looking to face. Nick has said that his goal is to eventually make it to the UFC, and (like Smith) his best bet is beating the competition in the WSOF.
I'm just glad to see that both of these talented fighters have found a new home in MMA World Series of Fighting.
