ONE Championship: Cosmo Alexandre thinks Sage Northcutt ‘doesn’t need to fight’ after fracturing his face

Brazilian thinks dropping two divisions will be ‘too low’ for 24-year-old American after brutal KO on ONE debut

‘I don’t know why he was fighting – he was doing some movies already, working as an actor’

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Cosmo Alexandre drops Sage Northcutt with an overhand right. Photos: ONE Championship

Published: 5:27pm, 23 Jun 2020Updated: 5:27pm, 23 Jun 2020

Sage Northcutt still hasn’t returned to full training more than a year on from his devastating 29-second KO by Cosmo Alexandre on his ONE Championship debut.

The former UFC star was left face down on the canvas, and with eight facial fractures, after one punch from 38-year-old Brazilian kick-boxing veteran Alexandre (8-1 MMA) in May 2019. Northcutt (11-3) needed nine hours of surgery in Singapore, and revealed his nerves were “almost sliced off” by the overhand right from “Good Boy”.

Northcutt told SCMP MMA this month he plans to move down two divisions to featherweight, and admitted he “made a mistake” fighting Alexandre at welterweight. But Alexandre thinks the 24-year-old American will struggle to make the weight. He himself had trouble getting down to lightweight, suffering the only knockout loss of his career against former ONE kick-boxing champ Nieky Holzken in 2018.

“Maybe it would be hard,” Alexandre told SCMP MMA’s Post Fight Podcast. “I don’t know how he does that, how he cuts weight, but 70 kilos is 155 [pounds], I think he cannot do that, that’s too low. I know how I felt when I did 77 kilos, it was hard already, and he is not a skinny guy. He is strong with a lot of muscle. I don’t know how he can make 70 kilos. If he does 77 I think he’ll be OK, it will be good for him. He can be strong.”

Given the severity of his injuries, UFC president Dana White suggested Northcutt should retire because “this sport isn’t for him”, while there was plenty of criticism of the match-up including from Joe Rogan.

“I never like to see that [Northcutt’s injuries], it’s just my job, I just wanna go there and win,” Alexandre said. “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.