Jon Jones was only 23 years old when he won over Mauricio “Shogun” Rua by a series of powerful elbows and knees back in March 2011. This win led Jones to be tagged as the ‘youngest’ champ in the UFC history.
Sage Northcutt, on the other hand, is a 19 year-old new blood who is preparing to make his second appearance this coming Thursday at the UFC Fight Night 80. Northcutt, compared to his fellow MMA fighters, is actually a kid born in the mid-90’s with minimal experience in the MMA industry. Some might find this situation to be a disadvantage, but not to Northcutt. He is hopeful and determined to do better than Jones.
During a recent interview, Northcutt revealed what he wants to be in the future.
“What I am looking at is a long-term thing. I’m trying to have not only as many fights as I can right now, because you don’t know when the end of your career could be, but also to be able to hopefully be the UFC champion one day, and I’d like to be the youngest,” he said.
Northcutt is preparing to go against Cody Pfister in the one of the three series of UFC events this coming week, and he is doing so very publicly. His win over Francisco Trevino gave him the opportunity to be tagged as one of the upcoming stars in the promotion. Now that the UFC has placed him in the limelight by putting up a massive hype on his back, Northcutt is finally experiencing its setbacks. One thing he did after his debut in the UFC last October, though, is to answer back to all the callouts he received from his fellow MMA fighters.
“That’s very awesome actually. I guess the more people who want to fight, that’s very nice, that’s great for me, because I want to be able to have as many fights as I possible can and be able to fight as soon as possible, and obviously be well prepared for my fights. I’m just very thankful that anybody wants to mention me or be able to fight me. I’ve only had one fight in the UFC, so that’s an awesome compliment,” Northcutt said.
Northcutt’s pleasant demeanor amidst all the controversies even extended to his opponent, Pfister, even though he called Northcutt White’s new “lap dog”. Pfister even publicly questioned Northcutt if he is using PEDs.
“That’s funny, and I just want to tell my opponent thank you for saying that, because that’s a huge compliment to me. If he thinks so, then that’s very nice that he says that. I’ve actually been tested four times already, drug tested. Three times by USADA and one time by the Texas boxing commission for the UFC, and actually USADA came to my house at six o’clock in the morning and took blood from me and urine, along with being tested throughout high school and sports all the time too. So that’s a big compliment,” Northcutt clarified.
As for his immediate future plans, the new blood MMA fighter admitted that he is ready to face the challenges that may come his way.
“I think [my debut] went just perfectly, as planned, how it should’ve gone, and it don’t think it really could’ve gone any better than what it went. [But] there’s always something to correct in your gameplan, even if it’s just, let’s say your left big toe is not moving as fast as your whole foot or something. There’s always little things to correct, so I’m always looking to correct those (things) and make myself better. Hopefully I can show that this Thursday, too,” he said.