In any sport, not just MMA, there is a perpetual obsession with discovering the next big thing.
Whether it’s anointing a young footballer the “New Messi” or hyping Max Verstappen as the next Michael Schumacher, sports fans are always on the lookout for a future star. And the UFC is no different.
Step forward “Super” Sage Northcutt.
The 19-year-old has undergone a rapid rise since being unearthed by UFC president Dana White on his TV show ‘Looking for a Fight’.
He has gone from a nobody to a somebody almost overnight and all White can see now is green.
Northcutt has all the hallmarks of a moneymaking machine. He possesses model good looks, is well spoken and wears a magnetic smile.
Northcutt exhibits other-worldly athleticism – just look at his flips – and what his first two fights in the UFC have proved is that he has nasty all-round game too. In his debut last October, the Houston native blitzed Muay Thai specialist Frank Trevino inside a minute.
The hype train continued to hurtle down the track with a second-round submission of Cody Pfister in December.
And now, he’s facing his third fight in four months on Saturday against Bryan Barberena – a late replacement for the injured Andrew Holbrook – on the main card of light-heavyweight contenders Anthony Johnson and Ryan Bader’s clash.
Not only is it a new opponent, but it’s a new division as he moves up to welterweight and now is the time to manage the hype.
Many corners of the MMA world deride the quality of his opponents but they forget how young he is – he’s the third-youngest fighter in the history of the UFC. He needs time to develop and the space to be allowed to do so. What people also neglect is that we’re seeing his amateur career right now, in the big time, at the very top level of MMA.
What we see from the elite fighters in the UFC is an extensive amateur background in a different discipline. Northcutt doesn’t have that. If you look at Ronda Rousey she won an Olympic bronze medal in Judo. B.J. Penn was the first non-Brazilian to win a Jiu-Jitsu world championship and across the board there are so many examples of amateur pedigree.
Northcutt has a good all-round game but he isn’t the best in the world at one discipline.
That’s not his fault but it shows the infancy of the UFC that certain sections sneer at the quality of fighters he is facing. He needs to be built up slowly before he is fed to the monsters of the UFC.
If he isn’t we could see him rise fast but fall even faster.
Northcutt is young but he has talent, give him room to grow and he could be the next big thing.
