Nick Newell, Ray Sefo and Tom Marcellino Nick Newell began to think that years of fighting and hard training might be taking their toll on his body when he injured his knee during a relatively low-impact training session recently. A few weeks later, when he hurt his back stretching out before practice, he knew he had a problem. “It’s not even the sparring that’s doing it to me,” Newell told MMAjunkie.