UFC 305 debutant Stewart Nicoll recently revisited his childhood growing up in the Solomon Islands, which was then embroiled in turmoil.
The Solomon Islands were in political and ethnic chaos in the late 90s, leading to a coup d'état in 2000 and subsequent years of violence involving rape, murder, torture and abductions. While Nicoll’s family was caught right in the middle of it, the undefeated flyweight, who makes his UFC debut this weekend, doesn’t remember much of the trauma. What he vividly remembers is an image of his father sailing away in a dugout canoe from a beachfront in the Solomons, unsure whether he’d return.