ONE Championship: Sage Northcutt ‘always thinking of the title’ as return nears against Shinya Aoki
- Former UFC star ‘hopefully looking forward to the best Sage performance yet’ at ONE on TNT 4
- Northcutt embracing underdog status vs Japanese legend with a lightweight ranking spot up for grabs
For the best part of two years, “Super” Sage Northcutt has had to be constantly reminded about his infamous 29-second KO at the hands of Brazilian striking veteran Cosmo Alexandre on his ONE Championship debut.
Unable to train for a year after undergoing a nine-hour surgery on eight facial fractures following the May 2019 fight in Singapore, former UFC star Northcutt (11-3) returns next month to the city to face Japanese legend Shinya Aoki (46-9), in a bout which will be pre-taped and broadcast at ONE on TNT 4 on May 29 (May 28 US time).
The fight news was broken by the UFC’s broadcast partner ESPN, and questions abounded again over the infamous one-punch knockout up a division in ONE at 185 pounds, where he was drinking gallons of water just to make the minimum weight.
“It doesn’t annoy me, but it is the past, it’s only one fight – I’ve said what there is to say about it, and there’s not really anything else to say,” Northcutt told SCMP MMA. “Now it’s totally different, I’m looking forward to a totally new fight and this one I have scheduled is gonna be great.
“I’m training super hard, giving it my all, training so many hours every single day, as hard as I possibly can. Hopefully looking forward to the best Sage performance I’ve done yet.”
Northcutt definitely isn’t taking a tune-up – he’s up against another formidable opponent in former ONE, Shooto and Dream champ Aoki.