Sage Northcutt put spice on both sides of his callout of ONE Championship jiu jitsu ace Shinya Aoki.
“Super” Sage Northcutt is generally known to be a pretty nice and chill guy, which makes his latest callout of Japanese jiu jitsu ace Shinya Aoki pretty unusual.
Northcutt hasn’t competed since a brutal 2019 knockout loss to Cosmo Alexandre that literally shattered his face into tiny bits. The young prospect suffered eight fractures to his skull and spent nine hours in surgery to fix all the damage done in just 29 seconds.
After that kind of damage, perhaps it makes sense to pick an opponent not known for their power punching. But Shinya Aoki is one of the most dangerous submission artists in mixed martial arts, and he’s also known for injuring opponents badly with his subs if they annoy him.
Shinya Aoki breaks Mizuto Hirota’s arm and gives him the finger….. Video pic.twitter.com/TLkCYHgJUp
— Neil Butcher (@MMAassault1) May 4, 2020
So this callout from “Super” Sage? Perhaps not the best idea.
“Hey Shinya Aoki, One Championship says they’ve tried to schedule our fight since April and you won’t fight me now,” Northcutt wrote. “What happened to your tweet a month ago that you wanted a bout agreement to fight me in August? Are you going to fight me or not?”
Hey Shinya @a_ok_i One Championship @onechampionship says they’ve tried to schedule our fight since April and you won’t fight me now. What happened to your tweet a month ago that you wanted a bout agreement to fight me in August? Are you going to fight me or not? @arielhelwani
— Sage Northcutt (@sagenorthcutt) July 9, 2022
Northcutt and Aoki were originally set to fight on a ONE Championship card in April, but lingering effects of COVID-19 kept Sage from competing. According to the 26 year old, not only did the virus ravage his kidneys and immune system, he was also having issues with blood clots.
Fortunately, Northcutt sounds fully healed and fiestier than ever. With Aoki looking to bounce back from a KO loss to Yoshihiro Akiyama in March and a grappling loss to Kade Ruotolo in May, we have a feeling he may be pretty open to a fight with “Super” Sage. Our only advice for Northcutt: don’t have any important plans made that involve your arm for a few months after.