Broomfield, CO — In the wake of his heel hook submission of Ahmed Mujtaba at ONE Fight Night 10 on Friday, “Super” Sage Northcutt knows who he wants next.
Northcutt (12-3) made his return to action for the first time in four years, almost to the day, at the Colorado-based event, ONE Championship’s first on U.S. soil. Both the night and Northcutt’s comeback were a success, with Sage getting the job done in under a minute.
Having been able to show some of his newfound grappling skills in the bout was a plus for the upbeat Northcutt, who spoke to media outlets including Cageside Press at the ONE Fight Night 10 post-fight press conference.
The fight, he noted, “was definitely pretty fast. I’ve been working my grappling though, a lot. So over the last few years, I’ve been really honing in on it, and working it a ton. So I’m really excited that I got to win out there, get a submission, and got to show some of that grappling.”
As to who he wants next, Northcutt is never one to make callouts or trash talk, pretty much at all. But given he had a previous match-up in place with a Japanese legend of the sport, he’d like to get that back.
“I did have a fight, I did have one set up with Shinya Aoki, and I think that would be a super-exciting one,” Northcutt stated. “Looking from my finishes now, you can see my grappling’s improved a lot, and I got to show some grappling.”
“He’s a great grappler, I think that would be a really exciting match.”
ONE Chairman and CEO Chatri Sityodtong’s ears perked up at the mention of Aoki.
“I think that would be great, a fantastic fight. So I want to make that fight,” said Sityodtong. “I’ve just got to talk to Shinya. It would be great. Shinya versus Sage, especially in Japan, it would blow up Japan.”
Watch the full ONE Fight Night 10 post-fight press conference with Sage Northcutt and Tye Ruotolo above.
