Former UFC star prospect Sage Northcutt experienced a rude welcome in his ONE Championship debut last May against Cosmo Alexandre. The 23-year-old fighter fought at 185 pounds and ended up losing via first-round knockout, with multiple facial fractures to boot.
ONE Championship’s weight classes are slightly different from Western promotions, where the welterweight limit is at 185 pounds. “Super” Sage feels 155 pounds is still the best weight class for him, which is called the featherweight division at ONE.
“I’m not really thinking about any opponents right now, just thinking how I’m going to go down two weight classes,” Northcutt said (via MMA Junkie). “So my previous organization I was in, I was 5-0 at 155 pounds, so I’m going to go back down to featherweight.
“I fought up at 185 pounds, so I was eating and drinking a lot to be able to get on some weight because I’m only 23, and I’m trying to put on some muscle, so now I’m going to go back down,” he added. “I learned my lesson about fighting a weight class too big, going back down to 155, and it’ll be better for me.”
With his plans to fight at the weight class he feels most comfortable at, Northcutt is expecting a dominant run.
“I’m expecting to be a smarter version of myself,” he said. “I’ve been doing a lot of, I guess, studying up of what happened in my previous fight, watching so many fights and stuff. So smarter me, a faster version of me, because I’m going back down two weight classes and a more dominant version, because I was undefeated at that weight class. I still am, and I believe I’ll be dominant there.”
Northcutt currently holds a record of 11-3 (with 8 wins by stoppage). ONE Championship has claimed that they have abolished weight cutting in the past.
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