Sage Northcutt is finally getting his crack at Shinya Aoki when ONE Championship arrives at the Ariake Arena on Sunday, January 28. As an added bonus, he will compete in Japan for the first time in his career. The matchup has the “Super” one very excited for the new year.
“I’ve always dreamed of fighting in Japan, so getting to fight on ONE 165 on January 28 is going to be very exciting. I’m looking forward to starting off the year with a great performance. I like to finish my fights if I’m able to, to make it as exciting for all the fans as possible. The fans are definitely going to be in for a treat, that’s for sure. This is huge,” Northcutt told ONE.
The matchup will allow Northcutt to score back-to-back victories and become a threat in the jam-packed lightweight division. Aoki is a former ONE Lightweight MMA World Champion himself, which is on top of his extensive success before joining the organization. The California resident understands what this means for his career.
“For me, it’s going to be great because he’s the former ONE Lightweight MMA World Champion. A lot of people know him as a legend in the sport. He’s had almost 60 pro [MMA] fights, he’s one of the longest-reigning champions in ONE Championship. This is definitely the biggest fight of my career. Look at his record, what he’s accomplished. He’s had an amazing career and I don’t think he has anything else to prove. It’s an honor to get to fight him,” the American explained.
The matchup had been in play for some time as the two exchanged words on social media. Unsurprisingly, Aoki’s comments were a little more harsh than Northcutt’s. The cold reception continued at the ONE 165 press conference.
The icy relationship only serves to motivate the 27-year-old ahead of his Tokyo appearance. The personality clash provides an interesting backdrop to their stylistic differences as well. And Northcutt is taking it all in stride.
“We did have the fight scheduled before, and a couple of weeks before flying out, I got sick with COVID, and that was unfortunate. Getting to have this fight is a big opportunity. I went to shake his hand during the press conference, and he was pretty stone-cold serious, but it seems like that’s just his personality from his previous fights and stuff. Man, it just pumps me up more to where I want to go train even harder. I’m going to try to hit him super hard out there. It doesn’t frustrate me at all. It was just interesting,” Northcutt exclaimed.
In his epic return to action, Northcutt scored a quick submission win that stunned the Denver, Colorado, crowd. Although this matchup is seen as a striker vs. grappler affair, Northcutt is thinking about shocking the world once more. He is leaving nothing to chance and plans to score a huge finish over an MMA legend.
“I don’t want to give away what my strategy is, but I’m planning on going out there to try to hit Shinya harder than he’s ever been hit in his life. If it gets into a grappling situation, or maybe he gets dropped and I’m on top of him, he’s also got to watch out for submissions too and be aware of those. He’s never been submitted in mixed martial arts, ever. So that’d be pretty insane if I was able to submit Shinya out there in MMA. That’d be something,” Northcutt said.
ONE 165 airs live from the Ariake Arena in Tokyo Japan. The event goes down on Sunday, January 28. The action is available on global pay-per-view on watch.onefc.com.
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