At XFC 24, Nick Newell was expected to defend his lightweight title, however he refused to take on Scott Holtzman.
XFC President John Prisco spoke about the situation today via the XFC newsletter. He said Nick came to the XFC because he knew he would get fights.
“When Nick came to us at the XFC Tryouts, his biggest complaint was that no one would take a fight against him. Everyone was telling him, it’s a no-win situation taking the fight. If you beat him, you beat a guy with half an arm…. and if you lose, you just lost to a guy with half an arm. He knew by signing with our promotion that he was going to be guaranteed fights, as our fighters fight the person I put in front of them.”
Now that Newell has turned down the fight with Holtzman he has been called a hypocrite.
“He is not willing to extend to Scott, even though they both carry the same XFC record (4-0). To me, that’s hypocritical and I have zero respect and no room for any individual that acts like that in my organization.”
When Prisco was asked what was next for Newell, he was very blunt with his answer.
“Nick is being stripped of the title and Scott Holtzman will fight June 14th vs a new opponent for the XFC Lightweight Championship Belt. Contracts are going out today and we’ll be making the announcement over the weekend.
Nick is wished the best in his future endeavors and we’ll leave it at that.”
