It may feel like ages ago that
Sage
Northcutt made headlines as one of the youngest fighters in
Ultimate Fighting Championship history, but at
27, his journey as a martial artist is far from complete.
Northcutt (11-3) will compete for the first time in nearly four
years when he faces
Ahmed
Mujtaba in a lightweight (170-pound) mixed martial arts bout at
One on Prime Video 10, in
Broomfield, Colo, on May 5. The Katy, Texas, native has the
opportunity not only to lace up the gloves once again, but to
reclaim some of the shine he once bore as a karate child prodigy, a
teenage UFC phenom and a prize free agent signing for
One Championship. As “Super Sage” prepares for
his clash with Mujtaba in the cradle of modern MMA, a look at five
of the moments that have defined his career to date:
1. Hype Level: 9000
On Nov. 14, 2014, the 18-year-old karate prodigy made his
professional mixed martial arts debut at Legacy Fighting
Championship 27 in his hometown of Houston. He was hardly a new
face to anyone who had been paying attention to traditional martial
arts: a karate practitioner from the age of four, Northcutt had
already made waves at age nine as the youngest person to appear on
the cover of Sport Karate magazine, and at age 15 had become the
youngest inductee into the Black Belt magazine Hall of Fame.
Coupled with a solid high school wrestling background and
five-fight win streak to close out his amateur MMA career, the
stage was set for Northcutt to be one of the sport’s next big
things. On that night in H-Town, Northcutt did nothing to dispel
expectations, as he blew away fellow MMA debutant
Tim Lashley
in just 27 seconds. The train had officially left the station.
2. Big First Impression
Thanks to a career-opening 5-0 run in Legacy and
Fury Fighting Championship, including a win on
Dana White’s “Lookin’ for a Fight,” Northcutt got the call-up from
the UFC. Easily the youngest fighter on roster at just over 19
years, seven months, his rookie appearance came at UFC 192 on Oct.
3, 2015, in Houston. Facing the 12-1
Francisco
Trevino, Northcutt showed that there would be more to his game
than roundhouse kicks, grounding Trevino with a huge double-leg
takedown and blasting him with ground-and-pound in under a minute.
The UFC realized it had a potential star on its hands.
3. “Bam” Goes the Dynamite
Coming into his welterweight main card showcase at UFC on Fox 18 on
Jan. 30, 2016, in Newark, New Jersey, Northcutt was 7-0 and had
finished all seven of his opponents inside of two rounds. Still a
month shy of his 20th birthday, he appeared well on his way to
becoming a contender as well as star, and short-notice opponent
Bryan
Barberena “Bam Bam” figured to be an appropriate test of
Northcutt’s development. However, nobody had handed Barberena a
copy of the script, and the nearly 3-to-1 underdog took Northcutt
down phenom off of an ill-advised spinning kick, then cinched up an
arm-triangle choke for the tap at 3:06 of Round 2. The teenage
phenom had taken his first setback as a professional.
4. ONE Rude Welcome
Northcutt bounced back from the Barberena loss to win four of his
next five, compiling a 6-2 Octagon record by the summer of 2018.
After parting ways with the UFC on a three-fight win streak, the
free agent elected to sign with
One Championship, raising the tantalizing
possibility that he might compete under the ONE banner in
kickboxing and muay thai as well as MMA. His promotional debut took
place at One Championship “Enter the Dragon,” on May 17, 2019, at
Singapore Indoor Stadium. Facing world-class kickboxer
Cosmo
Alexandre in ONE’s 185-pound welterweight division, it would
not be a good night at the office for the 23-year-old Texan. In
just 29 seconds, Alexandre caught Northcutt with a single punch
that famously broke multiple bones
in his face.
5. The Comeback Kid
Northcutt’s facial injuries required surgical repair, followed by a
lengthy recuperation, before he could return to combat sports. That
healing period overlapped the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic,
leaving the prized free-agent on the mend and on the shelf in the
States while One Championship returned to action in Asia under
safety protocols. It would be almost four years before Northcutt’s
own return, but even now at age 27, his best years as a competitor
may lie ahead of him. The road back to martial arts prominence
begins against Mujtaba, next week in Colorado at ONE on Prime Video
10.