One of the UFC’s most hyped prospects is getting back in the cage after his first career loss as a pro.
It’s not so much how you lose that matters (although in this case, that certainly had people talking), it’s how you bounce back that’s important. And fans are definitely going to be watching as Sage Northcutt looks to bounce back from the first pro loss of his young MMA career. Northcutt made headlines when he tapped to an arm-triangle choke in the second round against the unheralded Brian Barberena at UFC on Fox 18. Barberena entered that bout as a +240 underdog to Northcutt, in what was the then 19-year-old’s 8th pro fight.
Now Northcutt has his next matchup booked, and it’s on one of the biggest UFC PPV cards of the year. Northcutt is set to face TUF Latin America 2 finalist Enrique Marin at UFC 200 on July 9th. GQ Magazine announced the matchup via Twitter:
EXCLUSIVE: @sagenorthcutt will fight @enriquewasabi at #UFC200 https://t.co/joh3oGI8Gt pic.twitter.com/NZXEyY9oht
— GQ Magazine (@GQMagazine) March 31, 2016
Marin enters the bout off a loss to Erick Montano in the TUF LA 2 Finale back in Monterrey, Mexico on November 21st of last year. The loss snapped a 6 fight win streak for the Spanish fighter, with five of those wins coming by way of submission.
Has Northcutt been working on his BJJ? Will this be the big chance for submission artist Marin to get a win that will catapult his stock in the promotion? Will back to back losses for Northcutt mean that his hype is permanently derailed? Probably. Probably not. Maybe… But for more definitive answers we’ll just have to wait until UFC 200.