When a fighter with such a clean-cut image and respectful demeanour as Sage Northcutt appears to be trash talking, things don’t seem right…
Northcutt faced off against CM Punk bubble-burster Mickey Gall in his first main-card bout in the UFC, losing by way of second-round, rear-naked choke. The fight was notable not just for the second blemish on the record of “Super Sage”, but what appeared to be the unveiling of a new side to the clean-cut 21-year-old. Northcutt dropped Gall with a shot and began mouthing off at his opponent afterwards. So what was said? The man himself spoke on a recent episode of the MMA Hour, and cleared things up a little:
“So when I hit him and knocked him down, I was just telling him — I wasn’t really talking trash, I wouldn’t call it trash talking. I was just talking to him. I was like, ‘come on, get up, get up.’ I was telling him to get up because I wanted to fight standing up. Another one was I hit him, I know I hurt him, so I was just like, ‘that hurt, didn’t it?’ So I was just kind of talking to him.”
Northcutt, with a serious point to prove to himself and the man who called him out prior to their fight, admitted that he regrets approaching the fight the way he did:
“There was times when I knocked him down and I should have gotten on top of him,” he said. “I have great jiu-jitsu from the top, and obviously working on my jiu-jitsu from the bottom. So, I’m trying to work on that every single day that goes by, I’m always trying to improve that. But, I could have changed a few things in the fight and it could have turned out differently.”
As for another side of “Super Sage” coming out in the fight, Northcutt was quick to address the accusations thrown his way:
“No sir, I wasn’t trash talking,” he said. “I wouldn’t be out there, I would never be out there cussing at people or saying anything like that, so it wasn’t something to regret. Obviously I regret my performance. The two fights I have lost in the UFC, I should have won those fights, if I’d have been the Sage I know I can be. So I just need to work on that, be calm out there, don’t get too excited and amped up to rush in, and I should be getting better.”
