Before turning professional, he 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), 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