Northcutt’s simple approach to ONE 165 Aoki fight, ‘I’m going to hit him harder that he’s ever been hit in his life’
- American Sage Northcutt will square off against Shinya Aoki in Tokyo this weekend
- Northcutt’s straightforward approach contrasts with the former lightweight champion who tends to grind opponents into submission
A bad case of Covid 19 and travel restrictions brought on by the pandemic have limited Sage Northcutt’s ONE Championship appearances over the past five years.
In fact, since the American signed for the promotion he has stepped into the ring just twice; losing to Cosmo Alexandre on his debut in 2019 and beating Ahmed Mujtaba last year at ONE Fight Night 10.
The 27-year-old will finally get a third fight this weekend during ONE 165 in Tokyo, and its fair to say opponent Shinya Aoki, a former lightweight champion who has spent 20 years grinding fighters into submission, could be on the receiving end of some pent-up aggression.
“I’m planning on going out there to try to hit Shinya harder than he’s ever been hit in his life,” Northcutt said, highlighting the clash of styles and personalities fans can expect to see on Sunday.
The ever-smiling Northcutt contrasts sharply with the very serious Aoki, who is not known for his sense of humour, and refused to shake his rival’s hand at a press conference announcing the fight last year.
Not short of motivation, Northcutt said he added that perceived snub to the list.
“I went to shake his hand during the press conference, and he was pretty stone-cold serious, but that’s just his personality it seems like in his previous fights and stuff,” the American said. “So, it just kind of amps me up, makes me want to go out there and train even harder for this fight.”
While Aoki’s grappling credentials are well established, Northcutt is more of an all rounder. He won his last fight with a submission, finishing Mujtaba with a heel hook, but knows it will be very difficult to repeat this trick in Japan.
Northcutt clearly feels his striking is superior, but believes he will be able to hold his own if Aoki does take him down.
“If we decide to go on the ground, then I’ve definitely been training for it, and I believe in my jiu-jitsu and my grappling,” Northcutt said. “I’m ready for wherever the fight gets taken.”
Aoki has been knocked out on several occasions. Eduard Folayang and Christian Lee both put him away in lightweight title matches, and Northcutt thinks a couple of hard shots will be all it takes to make Aoki forget about grappling.
“You’ve seen fights before, I’m sure, where you have one of the top grapplers in the world and he gets hit a couple times, hit hard, and that grappling goes out the window,” Northcutt said.
Although 13 years younger than Aoki, Northcutt is a veteran of eight UFC fights and has been competing professionally for a decade, and a bout against one of the sport’s most successful grapplers holds no fear.
“I think what makes a big difference is there is ground and pound,” he said. “It is MMA, so there’s elbows, there’s knees, punches, hammer fists. There’s everything out there.”
