Sage Northcutt reminisces about how COVID foiled his ambitions to come back to face Shinya Aoki.

Sage Northcutt, a prominent figure in the sport of mixed martial arts in the United States, could have resumed his career in the sport as early as 2021 had it not been for the COVID-19 that injured him.

At the beginning of this month, ‘Super Sage’ made a successful comeback to combat after being sidelined for four years due to various medical difficulties. The fight took place at ONE Fight Night 10 which was broadcast on Prime Video in the United States.

As part of ONE Championship’s first-ever live on-ground event in the United States, which took place on May 5 in Denver, Colorado, the Team Alpha Male affiliate defeated the Pakistani fighter Ahmed Mujtaba with an excellent submission (heel hook) just 39 seconds into their featured lightweight clash. The bout was a featured lightweight showdown.

It was the culmination of a lengthy layoff that began after he sustained several facial fractures following his ONE debut in May 2019, where he was knocked out by Brazilian Cosmo Alexandre in the opening round. His injury layoff began after he was knocked out in the initial round by Brazilian Cosmo Alexandre.

After that, Sage Northcutt underwent surgery, and then he had a protracted period of recovery. By the year 2021, he was already fit enough to return to competition, and he was scheduled to face the legendary Japanese fighter Shinya Aoki in the month of April that same year. Then, unfortunately, he got COVID-19 a week before he was supposed to fly out to compete, which derailed his plans to come back. This ruined his entire trip.

Sage Northcutt described what occurred to him when he was infected with the virus in an interview that was conducted for the Fistivities podcast. He said:

“It was out of control. Following [my initial bout in ONE], I was given a bout. Shinya Aoki was scheduled to be my opponent. He has a lot of experience in the sport and is skilled in grappling. [He has] [been] around [the sport] for a long time. I think the majority of people around the world at that time had COVID, but I caught COVID one week before going over overseas. “And I had that fight set and worst time of the year, I think most of the people around the world at that time had COVID.”
Take a look at the interview down below:

Sage Northcutt is currently looking for ways to keep himself busy in order to make up for the time he has wasted since his impressive return, which resulted in him receiving a performance bonus of $50,000.

One of the things that interests him is a rematch with Aoki, whom he criticized during the press conference following the fight and then challenged to a showdown.

In Denver, ONE Fight Night 10 took place in front of a sold-out crowd at the 1stBank Center. Fans from North America who have Amazon Prime and want to watch the event again so they may relive all the action that took place there can do so at no additional cost.

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