Why Sage Northcutt's Skills Will Be Better Than Ever In ONE

When “Super” Sage Northcutt makes his ONE Championship debut at ONE: ENTER THE DRAGON next Friday, 17 May, he says fans will see a new-and-improved version of a martial arts superstar.

Ahead of his welterweight bout with Cosmo “Good Boy” Alexandre at the Singapore Indoor Stadium, the American prodigy believes he has taken his skill set to a whole new level.

The 23-year-old has been a martial artist all his life, and a mixed martial artist since he was 18, but he admits he has only really started to focus his training for his sport in the past year.

That is tough to imagine considering Northcutt’s 11-2 record, which features eight wins by stoppage, but the American says he was largely getting by with what he already knew, rather than evolving with each performance.

Northcutt reveals his attention was split as he attempted to balance his professional career with his studies for a college degree, but since he put his academic pursuits on hold, his focus is solely on his future as an athlete.

“I’m getting to see what works for my style instead of just going out there and winging it and getting by on athletic ability and anything I might know,” Northcutt says.

“Now I’m getting to piece everything together, and I’m learning different techniques that transition from one thing to the next. It was a transition for me.

“You can be the best striker on the planet, the best wrestler on the planet, or the best Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu player, but fighting mixed martial arts, piecing it all together, you’ve got to be the best at that, too. That’s the biggest thing for me.”

Northcutt left his home in Texas and relocated to California to put all those pieces together. He began working with the world-class group of athletes and coaches at Team Alpha Male in Sacramento.

Now, he is working full-time with a team that is dedicated to making him better every day, Northcutt saw immediate and dramatic improvements in every facet of his game.

“I’ve been to a bunch of different places, but I was always in school and I never really got chance to sit down and really improve,” Northcutt explains.

“I’d pick up a technique or two here or there, but [now] my coach Urijah Faber can be hands-on and teach me everything he knows.

“Then I have the coaches like Danny Castillo, who fought the best guys in the world, and Chris Holdsworth, who is undefeated. You have these guys who have done it, and they’re teaching there every single day.”

Northcutt’s most shocking revelation is that before Team Alpha Male, he had never engaged in any mixed martial arts sparring before his bouts.

He drilled with training partners and spent a big part of his life competing in tournaments, but he had never practiced for professional rounds with other athletes.

“I’ve had hundreds or thousands of fights – from karate to kickboxing and some wrestling tournaments – but mixed martial arts experience where you mix it all together, I never really had that,” Northcutt explains.

“Basically, I set foot in the ring or the cage to fight, and that was my first time trying it. If I’d get stuck against the side of the cage, it was my first time, so I’d wonder what I have to do to get off.

“If I took a guy down, I’m trying to figure out how to hold him down. Now I get those live [situations] every day, pretty much.”

Now that he has those training partners to push him in sparring along with several high-level, specialized coaches to make sure his grappling game is developing toward the same level as his striking, Northcutt feels like he has been completely reborn.

He has shown shades of improvement over his last couple of contests after he began working at Team Alpha Male, but Northcutt believes fans will be dazzled when he faces Alexandre in his ONE debut.

“I think you’re going to see a Sage Northcutt out there who is able to think on his feet,” he says.

“I’m going to be much smarter in whatever I do. Instead of just throwing strikes or doing whatever I’m doing out there, just trying to hit the guy, I’m going to be more pinpoint on what I’m trying to do.

“I’m already pre-planning what I’m doing before I do it. I’ve had more experience with sparring and training, so I think I’m going to show a lot of improvements out there.”