Sage Northcutt was called out by fellow rising star Mickey Gall after UFC 203, when the latter made quick work of CM Punk via first round rear-naked choke. Northcutt’s father, however, dismissed the idea of his son fighting as early as November at UFC 205, mainly for medical reasons.
The elder Northcutt revealed that his son was suffering from a staph infection, and was seeking an infectious disease doctor for treatment. He was also skeptical about his son moving back up to welterweight, citing problems during the Bryan Barbarena fight.
All of these were contradicted by Sage himself. In his appearance on Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour, the younger Northcutt says he is actually open to facing Gall in December, at 170 pounds.
“Me and my team reached out (to the) UFC,” Northcutt said. “That’s great with me and I am looking forward to it. There is nothing confirmed. We are talking to UFC about it and hopefully in December, that’s what we are looking at.
“I like the fact that it’s 170 for this fight because my previous fights, I’ve had trouble making weight (for lightweight). So after this fight, I’m going to go back and figure it out.”
Gall holds two fights prior to his recent one against Punk, against fellow newcomers on the professional level. While he did win all three by stoppage, Northcutt remains unimpressed.
“His previous two fights in the UFC, he came in and fought two guys, which I’ve never seen happen before, that had an MMA record of nothing,” Northcutt pointed out. “They had no pro MMA record, no amateur MMA record. They had no fights at all.
“Him going in and fighting guys with no experience, both close to 40 years old, it’s like fighting someone’s dad that has trained very little for a fight.
“All I can say is that I have better grappling than him and I believe I have better standup. If I go out there, I can take the fight wherever I want. If I want to go out there and knock him out, I can do that. If I want to take him down and submit him, then I believe I can do that also.”
Video of the interview starts at the 1:10:24 timestamp.