Sage Northcutt will be back in action soon. The former UFC prospect will return to the cage when he faces former ONE lightweight champion Shinya Aoki on April 28. Officials informed ESPN’s Ariel Helwani of the booking before Northcutt confirmed it himself in a chat with the former. The bout will be contested in ONE’s […]
Sage Northcutt will be back in action soon.
The former UFC prospect will return to the cage when he faces former ONE lightweight champion Shinya Aoki on April 28. Officials informed ESPN’s Ariel Helwani of the booking before Northcutt confirmed it himself in a chat with the former.
The bout will be contested in ONE’s lightweight division which has a 170-pound limit.
Northcutt hasn’t competed since May 2019 when he suffered a brutal first-round knockout at the hands of Cosmo Alexandre in his promotional debut. That bout took place at welterweight (185 pounds) with Northcutt facing a bigger and much more experienced opponent in Alexandre.
It also snapped a three-fight winning streak for Northcutt who will now be looking to return to the win column in his old division and earn arguably the biggest victory of his career against Aoki.
Aoki is on a three-fight winning streak following victories over Honorio Banario, Kimihiro Eto and James Nakashima. In total, he has won seven of his last eight fights with his only loss being a TKO defeat to current ONE lightweight champion Christian Lee.
In addition to being a former ONE lightweight champion, the Japanese legend is also a former DREAM and Shooto champion.
What do you think of this fight? Is Aoki too experienced for Northcutt?
Sage Northcutt will be making his return to action on April 28 when he takes on former ONE Championship lightweight champion Shinya Aoki. ESPN broke the news Wednesday that former UFC star Sage Northcutt has his return date and opponent set when the 24…
Sage Northcutt will be making his return to action on April 28 when he takes on former ONE Championship lightweight champion Shinya Aoki. ESPN broke the news Wednesday that former UFC star Sage Northcutt has his return date and opponent set when the 24-year-old upstart takes on Shinya Aoki on April 28. The card will […]
ONE Championship welterweight Cosmo Alexandre scored one of the knockouts of the year in 2019 with his brutal first-round stoppage of Sage Northcutt at ONE: Enter The Dragon. It attracted plenty of media attention at the time. It also left Northcutt requiring immediate facial surgery as well as an extensive recovery period, which is only […]
ONE Championship welterweight Cosmo Alexandre scored one of the knockouts of the year in 2019 with his brutal first-round stoppage of Sage Northcutt at ONE: Enter The Dragon.
It attracted plenty of media attention at the time. It also left Northcutt requiring immediate facial surgery as well as an extensive recovery period, which is only now coming to an end. When talking about the fight recently with South China Morning Post, Alexandre questioned what made Northcutt take the fight, given what he had going on in other fields.
“I don’t wanna hurt nobody. The way it happened, I don’t know why he was fighting. He doesn’t need to fight – he was doing some movies already, working as an actor. I don’t know, it’s hard to say because if it is in his heart to be a fighter, I can’t say anything. But in his position I wouldn’t fight, I wouldn’t,” Alexandre said, speaking to SCMP.
At 38-years-old Alexandre is a combat sports veteran with over a decade of professional experience under his belt, so to a certain extent, he understands Northcutt’s sporting ambitions but, as the Brazilian points out, if the roles were reversed and he was being offered similar opportunities, you can bet he would be taking them.
“For me it’s easy to say that because I have 104 fights in just kick-boxing and Muay Thai so I’m kinda tired – ‘Oh, I have to travel again, cut weight, train hard’. For me to say that, ‘Oh no, you just need to stop fighting’, it’s easy to say that. But he has like 10 fights? Of course, he wants to fight more, that’s kinda normal. I wouldn’t fight if I had the opportunities he has, working in the movies, doing all this stuff. But for me I have had more than 105 fights so for me it’s easy to say [that].”
Fans could have expected that after such an impressive performance, Alexandre would have been back competing almost immediately, especially since it took him less than a minute to defeat Northcutt.
However, following his win over Northcutt, the Brazilian has been working on getting a better contract with ONE and with the sides struggling to reach an agreement, fans were starting to wonder when they would next see Alexandre fighting again.
The issue came to a head recently after Alexandre tweeted about his frustrations. Thankfully, this reignited negotiations and a breakthrough was achieved.
“Last Saturday I talked to Chatri, I had a meeting with him, it was kind of a good talk. I see the problem is the company is growing fast and it’s really big now, it’s huge. So sometimes it’s hard to talk straight to him, so he tried to fix my situation.
“Of course, it’s about money, about my purse, and we got a deal now, but I’m just waiting to sign the contract. I’m waiting for them to send it to me. I was one year without a fight because I didn’t want to fight for the same purse, my contract wasn’t good. We are trying to fix that,” Alexandre said.
Now that he has a new contract on the way, Alexandre will hopefully be back competing under the ONE banner in the near future.
Are you excited about seeing Alexandre fighting again?
Between flying knees in title matches, spinning back kicks and good old-fashioned right hooks, there were a lot of candidates to choose from for the best ONE Championship knockouts of 2019…
Between flying knees in title matches, spinning back kicks and good old-fashioned right hooks, there were a lot of candidates to choose from for the best ONE Championship knockouts of 2019…
Sage Northcutt has learned from his recent loss inside the ONE Championship cage and will be making some big adjustments. Northcutt suffered a knockout loss at 185 pounds to Cosmo Alexandre. He sustained several fractures as a result of the loss. Now, after some surgical repair and time off, Northcutt is preparing to get back […]
Sage Northcutt has learned from his recent loss inside the ONE Championship cage and will be making some big adjustments.
Northcutt suffered a knockout loss at 185 pounds to Cosmo Alexandre. He sustained several fractures as a result of the loss. Now, after some surgical repair and time off, Northcutt is preparing to get back to action. Speaking to MMA Junkie, the 23-year-old noted he plans on dropping back down to 155 pounds.
“I fought up at 185 pounds, so I was eating and drinking a lot to be able to get on some weight because I’m only 23, and I’m trying to put on some muscle, so now I’m going to go back down,” Northcutt said. “I learned my lesson about fighting a weight class too big, going back down to 155, and it’ll be better for me.”
Northcutt’s loss in his ONE debut ended a three-fight win streak that he racked up in the UFC. Shortly after his knockout loss, UFC president Dana White suggested Northcutt consider retirement, a suggestion Northcutt strongly disagreed with.
“For him to say something like that, after that injury, I don’t understand the exact logic of why he would say something like that,” Northcutt said. “Before, he was wishing me to do great in everything I happened to do in the future, and (to) say something like that is totally different.
“I’m sure he’s had a few fighters from the UFC go to ONE Championship and I’m sure he—I’m not sure what exactly he wants to see from those fighters, but I’m sure he would like them to be fighting for his league. Me fighting for ONE Championship is great, and I think I’m gonna accomplish great things.”
What do you think about Northcutt dropping back down to 155 pounds?
Sage Northcutt plans on making the move to the featherweight division. ONE Championship’s featherweight division is 155 pounds. Northcutt has dabbled into both the 155-pound and 170-pound divisions. After suffering a brutal knockout loss to Cosmo…
Sage Northcutt plans on making the move to the featherweight division. ONE Championship’s featherweight division is 155 pounds. Northcutt has dabbled into both the 155-pound and 170-pound divisions. After suffering a brutal knockout loss to Cosmo Alexandre at 185 pounds, “Super” Sage hopes to be 30 pounds lighter for his next outing. The 185-pound weight […]
ONE Championship welterweight Cosmo Alexandre scored one of the knockouts of the year in 2019 with his brutal first-round stoppage of Sage Northcutt at ONE: Enter The Dragon. It attracted plenty of media attention at the time. It also left Northcutt requiring immediate facial surgery as well as an extensive recovery period, which is only […]