The last time Emanuel Newton remembers looking down at his motorcycle’s speedometer, he said he was going 152 mph.
The race against the car down a California highway underlined Newton’s fearlessness during his mixed-martial-arts winning streak that had reached six fights. But then the car he raced on his ride home from a job bouncing at a Newport Beach bar in June 2007 began to veer out of control.
The car bumped Newton’s motorcycle, caused him to try quickly breaking and, finally, forced him onto the ground. He estimates he was going 140 mph when he hit the pavement.
“I knew how to roll from wrestling and training,” Newton told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com). “I seriously think that saved my life.”
Newton has taken several negative instances in his life – the death of both parents before he turned 17, his motorcycle crash that cause him to almost lose his arm – and focused on how they have helped him reach this point in his MMA career.
Newton (14-6-1) continues that career on Friday when he takes on Ilir Latifi (4-1-1) in a light-heavyweight bout at Shark Fights 17 in Frisco, Texas. Fighting on the HDNet-televised main card before the Matt Horwich vs. Jake Rosholt and Ricco Rodriguez vs. Karl Knothe co-headliner, Newton hopes to show off a new fighting strategy that includes an increased focus on kicking.
Already a veteran of 21 professional fights, the 27-year-old Long Beach resident has remained flexible in the fighting style he first developed out of high school when his first fight came six months after he started training.
Limited by healing difficulties in his once-mashed arm, Newton has continued to fight steadily, winning his past two at Maximum Fighting Championship shows in Canada. He hopes his new training will change perceptions immediately on Friday.
“I go wherever the fight is, so I have to be good everywhere,” he said. “If I can pull off this new kicking style with what I’ve already been doing, no one will do what I do.”