ONE Championship’s Cosmo Alexandre was unhappy to learn how seriously he injured Sage Northcutt’s face after his brutal KO win.
Former kickboxing and Muay Thai world champion Cosmo Alexandre was happy with his 29-second knockout win over UFC alum Sage Northcutt at ONE Championship: Enter The Dragon, however the 37-year-old was not pleased with the multiple facial fractures and nine hours of surgery his opponent needed to go through after the fight.
In an interview with MMA Fighting, Alexandre explained he doesn’t like hurting his opponents, but had a feeling something was wrong with Northcutt’s face right after delivering the finishing blow.
“When the fight was over and he got back up his face was already swollen, and that’s something unusual. I had a feeling that it wasn’t 100 percent. I left the ring and went backstage to see the doctor, he was in a different room, but I decided not to get in there because there was too many people out there. When they brought a stretcher, I knew something serious had happened.”
When Cosmo did learn about Northcutt’s long surgery and how many fractures he suffered, Alexandre confessed he felt bad, since he does not want to put someone out of their livelihood for that long.
“The next day I heard that he had a long surgery. I hate that, man,” Alexandre said. “I’m doing my job there, to go in there and win. I know we can get hurt, but nothing that serious. I was sad because that’s his job and I don’t wish that to anyone.”
Devastating as the knockout was, Alexandre was not surprised to learn the video of his win went viral. However, he did not understand why Northcutt was receiving so many hateful messages at the time nor why so many MMA fans do not like to watch Sage perform.
“When I got back to the hotel there were a lot of messages online, people talking trash at him,” Alexandre said. “I honestly don’t know why. I can’t understand why people hate him so much. I don’t know if it’s because he’s good looking, like a model. I can’t understand, and I don’t like that. I asked people to stop tagging me on those messages.”
An accomplished fighter, with 89 professional kickboxing bouts and nine more outings in mixed martial arts, Alexandre points out he has no need to pursue a long career in MMA and is only in it for the money, and at 37 years of age, Cosmo believes retirement is not too far away from his reality.
“I’ve fought everyone and won everything I could win in Muay Thai. The major titles, I’ve fought and won them all, so there’s no goal left. And neither in MMA,” Alexandre said. “Being the ONE champion, being a UFC champion, I don’t have that (desire). The thing for me now is making money. I want to retire soon, so all I think about is money. Having good fights, of course, to finish my career on a high note, and make money. It’s up to ONE now. I have can fight Muay Thai, kickboxing or MMA there.”
In his MMA career, Cosmo Alexandre (8-1) was only defeated in his debut, back in October 2011, when he dropped an unanimous decision to Josh Quayhagen. Afterwards, the Brazilian picked up wins in promotions such as Bellator, Legacy FC, and ONE Championship, including an unanimous decision win over Quayhagen back in November 2012.