The Debut:

Let’s get one thing straight.  John Perretti’s Extreme Fighting was quite possibly the most disorganised, and dishonest promotion in the short history of MMA.  Trouble with the local cops, judges and politicians weren’t all their fault but the blatant lies and exaggerations about fighter’s weights, backgrounds and records were.  Extreme Fighting 2, held on April 26th 1996, was the most troubled event in the company’s short, turbulent history.  An overnight dash across the border to an Indian Reservation in Canada and cameramen spending the night in jail and most of the fighters threatened with arrest were just some of the behind the scenes nonsense that plagued the show.  This chaos resulted in a number of changes to the original card and a certain teenager stepping into the cage at just one-day’s notice to make his professional debut.  That teenager was Carlos Newton, facing a far larger man with a background in Kyokushin Karate, well nourished Montreal native, Jean Riviere.

Giving away around 100 pounds in weight (the commentary and on-screen graphic both claimed, preposterously, that Newton weighed in at 205 and was giving up a ‘mere’ 75 pounds) and wearing a Gi, Newton immediately charged across the cage with a strange flying kick/tackle combination.  Riviere immediately clamped his arms around Newton’s neck and hooked a leg around Newton’s.  Held tightly by Riviere’s huge arms, Newton worked doggedly for the double leg takedown.  Riviere’s sheer size stopped him and Newton instead dropped to the mat, hoping to draw the bigger man into his guard.  This failed, but thanks to some slick grappling, Newton ended up rolling onto Riviere’s back, working for a rear naked choke.

Riviere hauled his large frame up to his feet, with Newton still clinging on, until the two were standing against the fence.  Still searching for the choke, Newton threw a headbutt and a couple of punches to try and open Riviere’s defence a little.  However, in doing so, Newton lost his grip and, with it, Riviere’s back.  The big man used his bulk and strength to force Newton back to the mat, landing in his half guard.  Newton slickly switched to a full mount but, showing surprising mat skills, Riviere reversed him and ended up with a full mount of his own.

Despite holding such a dominant position over the much smaller teenager, Riviere simply stopped fighting, content just to lie on top of Newton and hope for, well, who knows what.  Newton was soon squirming out of this position, trying to escape by giving Riviere his back and slipping from underneath him.  The trick worked and after a brief, and hopeful armbar attempt by Newton, both men were back on their feet, at around the 3-minute mark.  Riviere, already tired, spat out his mouthpiece for a quick breather, but Newton, after heaving Riviere’s considerable bulk around was breathing heavily too.

When the fight restarted, Riviere landed a decent low kick and Newton again went for a double leg takedown but ended up on his hands and knees with Riviere on his back, holding him down, again controlling him while offering no real offence of his own.  At this point Riviere happened upon the idea of throwing some knees at Newton’s head, which he then did, sparingly.  Content to hold Newton down, Riviere held position and threw the odd knee in the general direction of his head.  Newton managed to get an arm in the way and so avoided any serious damage until Riviere stepped up the pace and drilled him with three shots in succession.

A dazed Newton then made another reversal attempt but Riviere clung grimly onto his head and upper body and delivered another decent knee to the head.  Somehow, Newton managed to haul himself and Riviere up to a standing position but was forced back down by the sheer weight of his opponent, who threw a couple of punches to Newton’s ribs.  From there, Newton made another desperate escape attempt and managed to take side control.  Amazingly, he then slipped neatly into the mount position and went for an armbar.  Unfortunately for our subject, Riviere managed to roll through the attempt, leaving Newton trapped underneath.  Newton ended up with an arm sticking out and Riviere grabbed it but seemed unsure what to actually do from there.  Luckily for him, it didn’t matter as Newton, utterly spent from having such a behemoth lying on top of him for so long, tapped out, giving Riviere the victory at an announced seven minutes and twenty-two seconds.  Of course, the fight actually lasted closer to nine minutes but this is Extreme Fighting we’re talking about so reality has only a marginal relationship to what they actually said.

Analysis:

What can Newton’s first fight tell us today?  Well, it was brave, if not reckless of the teenager to take on a far bigger opponent at such short notice.  His in-fight tactics displayed a similar recklessness, as well as a heavy reliance on his already impressive grappling and submission skills when he had some openings to use his fists instead.  All of these traits have re-surfaced in his career since but they don’t tell the whole story.

Newton is fiercely independent and remains reckless at times and this has had an impact on his development as a fighter.  This independence (he didn’t choose the ‘Ronin’ nickname by accident) has been both a strength and a weakness.  His out of the ring activities are well documented – learning Japanese, his linguistics degree, his pre-medical studies and volunteering at an Ontario hospital.  All of which have had an impact on his career.  It simply isn’t possible to remain truly competitive at the highest level without the backing of a strong team and a genuine, full-time commitment to the sport.  Unfortunately, Newton is, and always has been, a part-timer.  A truly skilled, constantly entertaining performer, Newton could offer so much more to the sport but, unlike most, he has his eyes firmly set on his future, both in the short and long term.  He certainly loves to fight but it’s not the only thing in his life.  And for all the frustration that might cause his fans, it leaves him in a far better position to adjust and move on when he finally retires.

The bravery and/or recklessness Newton showed in that first fight has continually resurfaced, most notably in his general approach to what is an incredibly demanding sport but also in individual fights.  His willingness to stand and trade with Dan Henderson in their UFC 17 classic; the way he shook off a horrific knee strike from Jose ‘Pele’ Landi-Johns to score a submission win in an absolute war at Pride 19; and his stubborn refusal to quit against Matt Hughes at UFC 38, despite absorbing some horrible punishment.  This recklessness also contributed to his comprehensive loss to Renato ‘Charuto’ Verissimo.  For years, Newton had travelled all over the world on student or tourist visas, neglecting to sort out the proper documentation and getting away with it.  Eventually this had to end and he was held up at the Canadian-American border for a few days prior to their UFC 46 fight.  Unable to train properly or even make weight Newton looked utterly flat as Verissimo out-wrestled, out-hustled and out-skilled him for three very depressing (for a Newton fan) rounds.

The other major theme of Newton’s debut, his love of, and proficiency with submissions has been demonstrated again and again.  Of his 12 wins (compared to 10 losses), 9 have come by submission, with 3 by decision.  It’s certainly telling that Newton has never won a fight with his feet or fists.  Newton’s tap-out wins came against impressive names like submission guru Erik Paulson, vastly more experienced Shooto fighters (both of whom debuted way back in 1989) Kazuhiro Kusayanagi and Kenji Kawaguchi and fighting legends Pat Miletich (with an ugly ‘bulldog choke’ where it looked like Newton was trying to pull his head off) and Jose ‘Pele’ Landi-Johns.  Newton has even shown off some incredible submission skills in defeat – his fight with Kazushi Sakuraba was a dazzling 15-minute display of grappling skill from two masters, keen to test their skills in what remains, almost seven years later a genuine classic and one of the most memorable fights in Pride history.  Sakuraba eventually caught Newton with a kneebar for the submission win but like his fight with Henderson, which had taken place just 5 weeks earlier, it cemented Newton’s growing reputation as one of the best fighters in the game.  In his first fight with Matt Hughes, it was only bad luck and the positioning of referee John McCarthy that cost Newton the fight, and his UFC Welterweight title.  Newton had clamped a secure triangle choke on Hughes until the Illinois born wrestler tried one last desperate attempt to win.  Hughes hauled Newton skywards and knocked him out with a brutal powerbomb.  On the way down though, Hughes passed out and McCarthy, seeing Newton was out, stopped the fight, giving the win and the belt to a dazed and confused Hughes.

Conclusion:

Newton showed plenty of potential in his debut, and commentator/owner John Perretti was certainly impressed.  For all Perretti’s faults, he was always a pretty good judge of talent.  He was after all, the man who brought Igor Zinoviev, Mario Sperry and Ralph Gracie to the attention of the fledgling MMA world.  In that debut, and considering the circumstances surrounding it, Newton certainly looked a good prospect, even though he was a little too reliant on his grappling, and it’s fair to say he’s still too reliant on that.  When he faces someone of equal or greater submission skill (rarely – Sakuraba, Verissimo, Takase) or someone who figures out how to neutralise his submission arsenal (Hughes, Chonan) then its quite likely Newton will end up the loser.  Whether it’s that, Newton’s outside interests, his lack of a stable, quality team and regular training partners, the continued evolution of the sport that Joe Rogan continually bangs on about, or most likely a combination of all of the above, Newton has been inconsistent for years now. 

A February 2001 loss to Dave Menne kicked off a frustrating loss-win-loss-win cycle that lasted for 8 fights and 3 years.  The final loss of that cycle came against Verissimo and Newton followed that up with an uncharacteristically dull, but close decision loss to Daijyu Takase and a much clearer loss, again by decision to Pride’s newest rising star, Ryo Chonan.  Realistically, Newton hasn’t looked himself since a quick submission win back in November 2002 against Pete Spratt, and that was a ‘gimme’ against a good striker with few ground skills.  He did beat Renzo Gracie by a fairly close decision in October 2003 but watching that fight almost gave me the feeling of seeing two fading legends in a fight that came a few years too late.  Hopefully Newton can somehow recover the form that made him one of the sport’s best and most exciting fighters.  Hopefully, because it would be a real loss to the sport if he just decided it was no longer worth the time, pain and effort, packed up his Dragonball and went home.

Pictures courtesy of http://www.susumug.com/jp/