Sage Northcutt is gearing up to do battle with Japanese legend Shinya Aoki next year.
Northcutt (12-3) and Aoki (47-11) will meet in a lightweight clash at ONE 165 on Jan. 28 at the Ariake Arena in Tokyo, which also marks the promotion’s return to Japan. The card will be headlined by ONE 135-pound muay thai world champion Rodtang Jitmuangnon and Japanese kickboxing star Takeru Segawa.
Northcutt parted ways with the Ultimate Fighting Championship in 2018 for ONE Championship, where his debut was spoiled by kickboxing veteran Cosmo Alexandre via a 29-second knockout. “Super” then went on a three-year hiatus, only recently returning with a Round 1 submission over Ahmed Mujtaba at ONE’s U.S. debut in May.
Meanwhile, Aoki hasn’t competed in mixed martial arts since suffering consecutive stoppage losses against Yoshihiro Akiyama and Saygid Izagakhmaev in 2022.
Northcutt and “Tobikan Judan” have gone back and forth on multiple occasions in the past, with a matchup almost coming to fruition in 2021. The former UFC fighter also recently said that he has been solely focused on Aoki since his victory over Mujtaba.
“I’ve been really focused on Shinya since after my last fight,” Northcutt told OneFC.com. “Post-fight when we talked with all the media, it got brought up by someone out there saying, ‘How about you and Shinya?’ And it got brought up that it might possibly be the next thing. So since then, I’ve just been thinking about that.”
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