Sage Northcutt, a man once considered to be one of the UFC’s brightest prospects, is now plying his trade at ONE FC. He suffered a disastrous loss on his debut for ONE, where he was knocked out in the first round by Cosmo Alexandre. Not only was it a brutal loss, but according to Urijah Faber, Northcutt had his cheek shattered into 30 different pieces. A loss with such brutal repercussions naturally led to a lengthy spell out of the sport for Northcutt.
A New Opponent For ‘Super’ Sage
However, in a recent interview with ESPN MMA‘s Ariel Helwani, Sage Northcutt revealed that he is now set to return to MMA. Northcutt began the interview by announcing the following:
“Alright, so (I’m) coming back, April 29th, this year. Only a couple of months away. I’m looking forward to it. It’s gonna be live on TNT. And I’m gonna be fighting against Shinya Aoki. I’m super pumped. He’s a legend.”
“He’s an incredible fighter. He has fifty five pro fights. Super skilled with the ground work. And he’s been around for ever. So for me, I’m super stoked for it.”
Having fought his last fight, against Alexandre, at 185lbs, Northcutt announced that he would be dropping down to 175. He had the following to say about it:
“Talking about it with my coaches and my family, I feel like 170 is just gonna be hydrated. It’s gonna be the best for me. As you know, my last fight was a weight class even above that. So I think going down to 170 would be great for me and I’m hydrated. Just feeling great. It’s gonna be really good.”
The Devastating Loss To Alexandre
Northcutt goes on to discuss his disastrous debut for ONE. Northcutt attributes the weight class as a key factor in regard to his loss to Alexandre.
“Obviously it’s a learning experience, but yeah I’d of rather fought down a weight class. It’s a good weight class for me. Even walking hydrated, after drinking all that water. You know one gallon of water weighs about 8 pounds. So imagine drinking a gallon of water, gallon and a half. Drinking like 8, 10, 12 pounds of water and then going to pee. And your still under weight. So that’s too big a weight class, and if I could do it again I would go back down a weight class.
Northcutt also mentions that the whole environment has completely different from what he was used to. The Western-style of the UFC can often be decisively different from how the Eastern MMA organisations such as ONE go about running their companies. Northcutt had the following to say:
“It was a new enviroment. It’s like a 19 hour flight. You kinda get used to the time difference. The warming up in the back is a little bit different. That fight happened to be in a boxing ring. There’s just little things that went into play that you weren’t (able) to prepare for”
“But now being through that. Having my sister that had a fight that wasn’t too long ago. I went out there, and was actually in her corner coaching her. I got to be in that enviroment again, I think that was great for me. So I think everyone has an off day, or an off night out there. Even the top champions of the world. There’s guys that lose in like five seconds in a fight. So it’s only one fight. I’m gonna come back really strong.”
Sage Northcutt will look to even out his ONE FC record to 1-1 on April 29th. Who do you see winning out of Northcutt vs Aoki? Let us know in the comments.
