Sage Northcutt Trains With AEW’s Malakai Black Ahead Of Return At ONE Fight Night 10
As Sage Northcutt prepares for his much-anticipated return to the Circle, he’s been trading tips of the trade with a professional wrestling superstar.
Now fewer than two months away from his May 5 lightweight MMA showdown with Ahmed Mujtaba at ONE Fight Night 10: Johnson vs. Moraes III on Prime Video in Colorado, “Super” spent some time training with AEW’s Malakai Black.
The two athletes got together earlier this week at Northcutt’s home gym, Team Alpha Male, in Sacramento, California.
Black is currently at the top of his game and one of AEW’s biggest stars, recently capturing the AEW World Trios Championship alongside Buddy Matthews and Brody King.
A well-rounded fighter with elite skills on the feet and ground, Northcutt showed the wrestler some of his favorite attacks, including a banana-split and calf-slicer submission combination.
The American phenom wrote on social media about his time in the training room with Black:
“Had a blast meeting up with @aew @malakaiblxck to exchange some techniques! Looking forward to seeing him bust out some of these moves tonight on AEW Dynamite. Full video coming soon!”
The pair did much more than just grappling, though.
On his Instagram story, the AEW star posted a clip of him going over the finer points of one of “Super’s” high-level striking combinations.
Black, who loves training in Muay Thai when he’s not performing in front of thousands of fans, wrote:
“[Sage Northcutt] walking me through some of his favorite combos and small hints of techniques.”
Sage Northcutt Used Time Away To Level Up MMA Game
When he’s not sharing the mats with an AEW superstar, Sage Northcutt remains hyper-focused on his lightweight MMA showdown with surging Pakistani sensation Ahmed Mujtaba at ONE’s historic debut on U.S. soil.
Even though he’s been out of competition for the past four years, the 27-year-old still has plenty of competition time ahead of him.
And as he prepares to return, “Super” is excited to show ONE’s global fan base all the changes he’s made with more opportunities to focus on his skills in the gym.
He offered:
“You know, I’ve had 14 professional fights, and some of my fights were very fast back-to-back. Even starting out in my career, I started out very young, I was at school. So, just having time to focus on training, and I get to train with great training partners, great coaches, I just feel like I’m able to make improvements on different areas all around.”
Without the added pressure of preparing for a fight or a specific opponent, Northcutt has used his time on the sidelines wisely, rounding out his arsenal and adding tools in all aspects of MMA.
He thinks that his overall growth as a fighter will serve him well in his clash with Mujtaba, no matter where the battle takes place.
He added:
“I’m looking forward to going out there. Yeah, like I said, I’m not the kind of person who’s making any kind of predictions or anything like that, but yeah, all around trying to improve every spot in my game. So it’s not just focused on one specific area. It’s all around trying to make myself better.”
