Making her promotional debut at ONE Championship: Edge of Greatness, Colbey Northcutt put on a kickboxing clinic, showed solid ground skills, and picked up her first pro win.
Colbey Northcutt was one of the more curious signings by ONE Championship in the past year. The older sister of former UFC and now ONE athlete Sage Northcutt, Colbey was a promising prospect in her amateur days, but had lost her one and only pro fight under the LFA banner in 2017. She then took an extended hiatus from competition, focusing on her education until signing with ONE earlier this year.
Her first assignment under the ONE banner came at Edge of Greatness in Singapore on Friday, where she took on Indonesia’s Putri Padmi. Padmi, like Northcutt, had lost her one and only MMA contest, just over a year ago at ONE’s Warrior’s Dream card.
When the flyweight contest kicked off, it was clear that Northcutt held a massive size advantage over her opponent. She immediately put that to work, utilizing her long limbs with a high kick and strikes that put Padmi on the defensive. Northcuttt swarmed, and under siege, Padmi changed levels just as Northcutt jump guard for a guillotine. As they landed, Northcutt latched on to an arm, working on an arm-bar. Padmi survived, but Northcutt held on to the limb, even as Padmi stood back up. That dragged Padmi back down, at which point Northcutt switched to a triangle.
That choke became tighter and tighter as Northcutt slowly adjusted. Colbey certainly appeared more comfortable than her brother off her back. Padmi tried to work in some hammer fists, but remained stuck in the triangle until the final minute of round one, when Northcutt switched back to an arm-bar. She then swept and nearly wound up on top. Instead she landed on bottom again, employing a closed guard and trapping her opponent.
Northcutt’s length was a huge advantage both on the feet and on the ground, but whether she had burned either her arms or legs out in the opening frame was a question. She started the second hunting Padmi down on the feet, working her jab, straight rights, and head kicks. Padmi answered back, targeting the body and lead leg of Northcutt, but in terms of volume she was being vastly out-struck. The entire round would play out in this fashion: on the feet, Colbey Northcutt controlling the distance, Padmi unable to find a solution to her opponent’s reach.
A head kick landed for Northcutt early in the third. She continued to control distance with her jab, firing off punches in bunches when openings presented themselves. Padmi was taking some big swings, knowing she was down in the fight and in need of a finish. She finally punched her way in, backing Northcutt up against the ropes, but Padmi simply could not keep her there.
While Padmi turned up the aggression in the third, she was unable to connect with anything that came close to finishing Colbey Northcutt. It was a clear unanimous decision win for Northcutt, and a solid start to her ONE Championship career.
Where Northcutt goes from here could get interesting. ONE does not have a current women’s flyweight champ (also keep in mind their modified weight class rules). Nor do they have much of a division there. However Sovannahry Em takes on Brazil’s Rayane Bastos early next month, so there are signs of life in the weight class.
