ONE Championship: Northcutt lashes out over ONE 165 absence, as officials say fighter was told about visa issues
- American Sage Northcutt withdrew from scheduled bout with Shinya Aoki in Japan after learning cornermen were missing bout
- ONE denies claims information was deliberately kept from him, and says it hopes for amicable resolution
Sage Northcutt has lashed out over his absence from ONE 165 and accused ONE Championship of deliberately hiding the fact that two of his coaches were not going to be available for the fight in Japan.
In response, ONE Championship said it had told the 27-year-old’s team about the problem and suggested there had been a miscommunication with the fighter at some point.
It added that it hoped to “resolve this situation amicably”, and valued its relationship with the American.
Northcutt had been expected to take on Shinya Aoki in a lightweight MMA battle at the Ariake Arena in Tokyo, but spectators were only told midway through the event that the bout was cancelled.
Instead, Aoki took on veteran brawler John Lineker in an openweight contest that the Japanese fighter won by submission in the first round.
At the time, officials said there had been an issue with the UFC veteran’s cornerman, and while Northcutt confirmed this was the case, he said he did not find out about it until the day of the fight, and would not have travelled to Japan at all if he had known there would be a problem.