Sage Northcutt reacts to the version that UFC President Dana White has given regarding his departure from the Las Vegas-based promotion.
The rising prospect decided during his time as a free agent that it was best for him to sign with ONE. This was instead of staying with the UFC. The UFC President talked about Northcutt’s status while speaking on the UFC Unfiltered podcast. This is where he claimed that they chose not to re-sign Northcutt and not that Northcutt left them.
However, Northcutt made it known in an interview with Ariel Helwani that he was the one who made the call to leave the UFC.
“I know at first, the UFC said that I had been cut from the UFC, but it actually didn’t happen like that,” Northcutt said. “I wasn’t cut from the UFC. Actually, the UFC wasn’t able to match the incentive. What was being offered from ONE Championship. So they actually had to physically release me. It was the best thing to release me.”
His Side
Northcut made an appearance back in 2015 on the debut episode of Dana White’s Lookin’ for a Fight web series. He would later go 6-2 in the UFC. The prospect continued by reflecting his options with the UFC about his future plans.
“When it was said that I was being released or cut from the UFC to go be able to develop as a fighter. Go work on my skills, that wasn’t the case,” Northcutt said (H/T to MMaNews). “I was actually offered to fight for the top 10 in the UFC and fight Ponzinibbio. Fight the main event inside Argentina. So I accepted that fight. And we said, OK, let’s do a one-fight contract for this so I could prove myself that I can fight in the top 10. I can go beat the top-10 guys. And then, we can come back and we can create a contract with more fights. Like four or five fights if we want.
“But then, the UFC after that, they came back saying, ‘Do you want to fight Ponzinibbio?’ And we said yes. They came back after that and said, OK, Sage, we’re going to ask you to do a two-fight contract. And me and my coaches actually said, no, you know what? We’re not going to do that.”
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