Sage Northcutt still recovering from brutal ONE Championship debut, plans return to lightweight

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Sage Northcutt still recovering from brutal ONE Championship debut, plans return to lightweight

Even before the novel coronavirus forced MMA, and the rest of the world, into a lockdown, lightweight Sage Northcutt was already on the sidelines, recovering from surgery after suffering several facial fractures in his loss to Cosmo Alexandre for ONE Championship in May of 2019.

As Northcutt puts it, he is more than ready to get back to fighting, but until he receives the green light from his doctors, he’s forced to wait things out, coronavirus aside.

“I’m healing up still,” Northcutt told MMAWeekly.com. “I’m still waiting for doctors to give me the okay to have full contact sparring and training.

“There wasn’t really an exact time of when to return. For me I would like to return as soon as possible. You kind of have to wait and see how things play up, but I’m healing up, getting better, and am so excited to get back out there and fight.

Mentally I’m ready. I’m more ready mentally than ever before. I have more drive to get out there. I want to win more than I’ve ever wanted to win in my entire life. I want to get back out there and do better than ever.”

While Northcutt has to avoid contact, he has been able to maintain his fitness level, ensuring that he has one less thing to worry about when he is able to resume more standard MMA training.

“I know with a lot of people around the world that are fighting right now all the gyms are shut down,” said Northcutt. “They’re not training anything with people because of the COVID-19 stuff. For me, I’m staying in shape. I’m blessed to have neighbors, family and friends who have fitness equipment I can use to stay in shape.

“I’m eating healthy as always. I hope all this stuff clears up soon so I can get back to training soon with my training partners. I’m more ready mentally than ever before. I have more drive to get out there. I want to win more than I’ve ever wanted to win in my entire life. I want to get back out there and do better than ever.”


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Fitness training aside, Northcutt is spending time doing things with his family to help stave off boredom during lockdown.

“My brother is a big gamer, so we’ll jump on some games like Need for Speed, Call of Duty, Mortal Kombat, playing games on Playstation,” said Northcutt. “Me and my mom always like doing puzzles; just fun little things like that to keep your braining going. Of course watching fights and stuff during quarantine because that’s always fun.”

When Northcutt is able to return to action, he has a clear idea of what he feels could set him up for success the most during his ONE Championship return.

“I’m 5-0 in that weight class of 155 pounds, so my goal is to go back to that weight class and stay at that weight class,” said Northcutt. “Of all the weight classes I’ve fought, that weight class is the best for my body, and I feel I’m going to do a lot better at that the weight class. My goal is to be champion at that weight class.”


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Sage Northcutt still recovering from brutal ONE Championship debut, plans return to lightweight