UFC welterweight Sage Northcutt has the abs and face of a Calvin Klein underoos model, more trophies than Boston’s sports teams combined, and was being groomed by the world leading MMA organization as the next big thing.
The trophies:
https://twitter.com/JasonKingBR/status/747806192018153472
However, Northcutt trains at a local Gracie Barra with no pro fighters, and got the stew choked out of him his last fight by the relatively unheralded Bryan Barberena. It was Northcutt’s first loss in MMA. Barberena at the time was coming off a Fight of the Night winning decision loss to Chad Laprise, at lightweight. Barberena has since capped his crushing of Northcutt with a tough decision win over Warlley Alves, at UFC 198; Alves had been 10-0 at the time, with the last four wins in the UFC.
Northcutt appeared recently on Ariel Helwani’s The MMA Hour and described the loss as a ‘fluke.’
“It was a lot of fights in that amount of months,” said Northcutt, as transcribed by Adam Guillen Jr. for MMA Mania. “I believe looking back at my last fight, that was a fluke deal. If I wasn’t sick, I believe I would have finished off my opponent very quickly. So, that’s what I go out to do all of the time; is finish off my opponents. I have four knockouts, and three submissions, so that’s what I am looking to do for this fight and I am excited.”
“All I know is, what I can say is that I was not my normal self in my last fight against him and If I was my normal self it would have been a different story. It was a fluke deal my last fight. I know I wasn’t my normal self. I am very explosive, and you saw me go out there and trip over my own feet and have to fall on the ground, and throw a kick after falling. that wasn’t something that I would normally do, my normal self. I didn’t have my normal speed, my normal explosiveness, none of that and I believe the people watching could see that.”
Northcutt fights Enrique Marin at UFC 200 pay-per-view on July 9. Marin is coming of a split decision loss to Erick Montano? at UFN 78 in November.
