Sage Northcutt Returns At UFC 200
After suffering the first loss of his MMA career to Bryan Barberena at January 30’s UFC on FOX 18, touted prospect Sage Northcutt has his return to the Octagon lined up.
Northcutt will return to action on July 9’s blockbuster UFC 200 pay-per-view (PPV) event from Las Vegas against The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) veteran Enrique Marin. GQ broke the news on Twitter earlier today:
EXCLUSIVE: @sagenorthcutt will fight @enriquewasabi at #UFC200 https://t.co/joh3oGI8Gt pic.twitter.com/NZXEyY9oht
— GQ Magazine (@GQMagazine) March 31, 2016
Highly touted as the future of the lightweight division when he was noticed by Dana White on the first episode of his “Lookig For A Fight” show, the 20-year-old Northcutt brought a ton of hype with him thanks to his extensive sport karate background.
He backed it up in the cage with two wins over Francisco Trevino and Cody Pfister, but his hype train came crashing down when his clear ground deficiencies were exposed by Barberena, who stopped Northcutt when ‘Super’ tapped out to an arm triangle choke that didn’t appear to be fully locked on.
Regardless, he obviously has a ton of time to right the ship and round out his overall game, but he’ll have his hands full with Marin, a touted grappler with an 8-3 overall record including five submissions who will be making his UFC debut.
UFC 200 is headlined by the awaited — and some would say controversial — welterweight rematch between Nate Diaz and Conor McGregor, while Jose Aldo will battle Frankie Edgar for the interim featherweight title (although not in the co-main event).
The event from Las Vegas’ all-new T-Mobile arena is shaping up as arguably the most stacked PPVof the year, and adding Northcutt can only help that hype and buzz significantly. We’ll have to wait and see if he’s able to capitalize.
