Poll: Should The UFC Bring Sage Northcutt Up Slowly?

At only 19 years old, UFC lightweight prospect Sage Northcutt has absolutely taken the MMA world by storm since his first round finish of Francisco Trevino in his debut at October 3’s UFC 192 from Houston, Texas.

“Super Sage” has it all, they say – the super athleticism, the sport karate champion background, dangerous and underrated wrestling, and to top it all off, the good looks to become a superstar in the sport. And there’s not much standing in his way to doing just that, truth be told.

The UFC understandably wants to bring Northcutt along slowly, as they booked him against lower level lightweight Cody Pfister at December 10’s UFC Fight Night 80, where he’ll fight alongside quickly rising young star Paige VanZant, who takes on Joanne Calderwood in the card’s main event bout.

He’ll rightfully be a very sizeable favorite over Pfister, but if “Super” gets past this smaller challenge, should the UFC continue giving him easy fights similar to how they did VanZant when she was handed Alex Chambers after beating top-ranked Felice Herrig in her previous bout?

True, the UFC lightweight division is arguably the most talented and deep in the promotion; much more so than the still-developing women’s strawweight arena. And Northcutt is only 19 years old, after all, making for no rush to put him in against a ranked opponent who has a huge amount of experience on him. But there’s also the possibility that if he keeps facing barely-known fighters and running through them, fans will be clamoring to see him take on a legitimate challenge.

Or maybe not. They might just want to see Sage show up and destroy whomever the UFC puts in front of him; maybe the opponent doesn’t matter at all as long as we see a show. What do you think – do you want to see the UFC bring Northcutt up slowly, or should they put his feet to the fire and see how he can do against someone truly relevant after Pfister?