UFC Sacramento this weekend (Saturday December 17, 2016) will play host to an exciting 170-pound contest between two of the welterweight division’s finest prospects, when Mickey Gall and Sage Northcutt collide inside the Octagon.
Gall called for the match-up after his UFC 203 win over CM Punk in Cleveland this past September, expressing his desire to fight the ‘corny’ Northcutt. In addition to the trash talk leading up to the bout, mostly from Gall’s side, Gall has proposed a Hair vs. Hair stipulation the bout, in which the loser would be forced to shave their head.
Northcutt recently responded to this wager during an interview with FOX Sports, calling Gall’s proposal ‘funny’ and explaining it as nothing more than an attempt by Gall to get attention:
“That’s pretty funny. I think he’s actually just trying to get some attention,” Northcutt said. “Maybe he should go ahead and shave his head now to get some attention.”
While the young 20-year-old Northcutt has faced much scrutiny since joining the UFC at such a young age and continues to get called out by many fellow UFC fighters, he views the attention he’s getting as a compliment from his fellow combatants:
“I really take it as a compliment. If they’re calling me out that tells me something and that’s nice of them to be calling me out,” Northcutt said.
While Gall has impressed in his last two fights inside the UFC he’s done it against two fighters who have never fought a professional fight in their lives, something that makes it difficult for Northcutt to study tape on his adversary:
“The fight against CM Punk, he fought the CM Punk who came from the WWE and had no MMA fights. Same thing as before when he fought in the UFC, the person he fought (Mike Jackson) had never had an MMA fight. What I saw was, it was very hard to tell anything from the fights because he fought two guys who never had a fight before,” Northcutt said.
“I think everybody expected just what happened for CM Punk and Mickey Gall and CM Punk it takes a lot of guts for him or for anybody to step into the Octagon to fight.”
“I believe it would have been very similar to what happened between CM Punk and Mickey Gall,” Northcutt said about a hypothetical fight with Punk. “I think CM Punk is going to be getting better and better and I hear he’s going to be looking for a fight soon.”
While Gall has secured his first two wins in mixed martial arts (MMA) via submission, Northcutt is not hesitant to take to fight to the ground this weekend:
“I do not think that’s true. I believe he’s going to be shooting for the shot to try and take me down. I have great wrestling as well so I might just take him down and ground and pound him,” Northcutt said.
“I’ve had four knockouts and three submissions out of eight fights. I know I have great grappling myself and I know how I do with submissions. The great thing is it’s mixed martial arts. So I’m prepared and I’m ready to go out there and get the victory.”
While we have yet to see exactly what Gall brings to the table in the stand-up game, Northcutt has shown to be extremely explosive given his extensive karate background, however, Gall is an extremely talented jiu-jitsu brown belt and Nothcutt has shown some struggles in the submission game. The match-up is an interesting one to say the least, and to see these two young men’s careers continue on for years to come should be a treat as well.
Gall and Northcutt will meet on the main card of UFC on FOX 23 from the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento, California tomorrow (Saturday December 17, 2016).
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