A year ago many looked at ‘Super’ Sage Northcutt as the UFC’s next big thing. As a 19-year-old he was main eventing UFC Fight Pass prelims and performing moves rarely seen outside of Jean-Claude Van Damme’s Bloodsport, a movie well before his time.
Sage had the proverbial rocket strapped to his back before an unexpected loss at UFC on Fox: Johnson vs Bader derailed his rise to superstardom.
“There’s no effects from the loss,” said Northcutt. “All I can take from it is that maybe I should’ve pulled out from the fight. In the future now I know, when you have to pull out from a fight then you have to.”
Sage has since spent 5-weeks at Tristar gym with fighters such as Georges St-Pierre and Rory MacDonald in preparation for Saturday’s UFC 200 bout vs Enrique Marín, only taking a break to complete his final exams at Texas A&M. The UFC’s lone student-athlete can honestly say that he was getting schooled at both institutions.
Seven years ago to the week, Georges St-Pierre turned in one of the most memorable performances of his career at UFC 100. His title defense against Thiago Alves remains one of the highlights of the night. Sage is hoping to make a lasting impression of his own at UFC 200.
Having the ability to lean on GSP as a mentor at Tristar will only help Sage accomplish that goal.
“GSP is super nice, super awesome. He told me to take each fight on fight at a time and what I’m doing is having fun with each fight. So, that’s what’s important.”
“Tristar is great and you can obviously pick up advice from them (GSP & Rory MacDonald). I know I wasn’t my normal self in my [last] fight; I didn’t have my speed, didn’t have my strength, didn’t have my explosion but I know I have the best cardio of anybody in my weight class, possibly the UFC.”
The last second weight increase remains an under-acknowledged factor from his last fight. Battling a sickness, such as strep throat, while regaining weight to reach the 170lb. limit would negatively affect any professional fighter. We saw what a last-minute jump in weight did to Conor McGregor heading into his fight with Nate Diaz; now imagine the same happening to a 19-year-old kid.
Fighting at UFC on Fox may very well be one of Sage’s greatest regrets as he moves on in his career but it may also be the push he needed to turn the corner as a pro.
Georges St-Pierre and Rory MacDonald both took losses early in their UFC careers and bounced back to fight for multiple UFC titles. GSP’s hurdle came in a submission loss to Matt Hughes at UFC 50, while MacDonald was TKO’d by Carlos Condit at UFC 115. Both rebounded to have great welterweight careers, GSP’s arguably the best of all-time.
Will Sage Northcutt follow their career trajectory?
I’m not sure, but it’ll be AWESOME watching him try.