Former UFC welterweight Sage Northcutt will return to active competition after a gap of more than four years. The return however will not be taking place at the UFC but rather at ONE Championship. Sage Northcutt will square off against Pakistani prodigy Ahmed Mujtaba in a lightweight collision.
The fight is a part of the 11-fight schedule for ONE Championship’s first-ever live on-ground event in the United States, which takes place at the 1stBank Center in Colorado.
Talking about his return Northcutt said, “Having some time off, I mean obviously everybody’s got nerves, if you don’t, that’s kind of different,” Northcutt told ONE Championship. “But everybody’s got nerves when they go into a fight. It doesn’t mean you’re nervous to fight, but you get the butterflies, you get excited, you get amped up, so of course, I’ll be feeling all those things.”
Sage Northcutt once held the title of mixed martial arts hottest prospect. The former Karate child star, who joined the UFC at the age of just 19, had all the makings of a potential PPV money maker for the biggest MMA organization in the world.
But Northcutt and the promotion parted ways in 2018 on mutual terms, with “Super” Sage having a 6-2 record inside the UFC Octagon during his three-year tenure. It’s unclear whether this was because he was pushed ahead too quickly or had a few too many flaws in his striking-centric style to thrive, or simply wanted more than the UFC was willing to give.
Will Sage Northcutt ever return to the UFC?
Northcutt is only 26 years old, despite a protracted break from the fight game. His youth is still on his side because he has been fighting professionally since he was in his late teens. Northcutt is happy to be able to come home and pick up where he left off in the ring.
Northcutt return to the UFC is certainly not off the charts but for that to happen he will have to prove his potential once again. Not many fighters are the same after a break that long, so if Northcutt can go on an impressive run at ONE, we might see him gracing the UFC octagon once again.
