Following his departure from the UFC in 2018, many were excited to see Sage Northcutt make the transition over to ONE Championship; however, the 24-year-old didn’t exactly leave the lasting impression that he wanted to at ONE Championship: Enter the Dragon.
Not only did the Texas native lose his fight against Cosmo Alexandre via knockout, but the punches he suffered resulted in eight facial fractures that required surgery. Nearly one year later, the young fighter revealed with MMA Junkie that one of the big mistakes he made was competing at 185 pounds. Northcutt stated that he plans on moving down to the featherweight division:
“I’m still healing up, and I can’t wait to be able to get out there and fight again,” he enthused. “I know it’s going to be a while, but I’m going to be strong and I’m going to go back to where I used to fight at 155. I was undefeated in the UFC in that weight class – I was 5-0 – and I think I’m just naturally more for that weight class. So instead of fighting at welterweight, what ONE Championship calls it at 185 pounds that I went up to, I’m going (down) two weight classes to featherweight (155). It’s going to be good.”
ONE Championship has currently shut down production due to the coronavirus and once the promotion gets up and running, Northcutt promises to showcase the techniques he hasn’t be able to use yet:
“I have a lot of different techniques and strengths that I never really get to use because, in training, I’m always trying to improve myself instead of going back to the basics and using those things,” Northcutt said. “So there’s a lot of different things, and of course every time someone has a loss or something doesn’t go right, you’re able to learn from it. So that’s exactly what I did. Having this time off in between I’ve done lots of studying, watching footage of different fighters, studying up on the ONE fighters in the weight class I’m gonna be at, so I think it’s going to be a great thing for me.”