“Constant drilling has helped” – Sage Northcutt says additional mat time upgraded his grappling skills

Lightweight MMA star Sage Northcutt credits his 39-second heel hook over Ahmed Mujtaba to the additional time he spent grinding on the mats alongside some of the best technicians on the canvas.

The multi-time karate world champion made his hotly-anticipated return to the Circle at ONE Fight Night 10 after almost four years of inactivity due to multiple facial injuries he sustained from his debut fight against Cosmo Alexandre at ONE: Enter the Dragon in May 2019.

While many hoped to see Evolve MMA and Team Alpha Male produce a trademark knockout, the 27-year-old from Texas had other ideas.

After momentarily being rocked, the karate specialist turned the tide, shot in for a takedown, and secured an inch-perfect submission over the Pakistani athlete.

Speaking of his refined skills in the grappling department, Sage Northcutt revealed it was a department he put extra focus on over the past couple of years.

He told The MMA Superfan:

“I think the thing that I was really missing a lot since I got into the sport so young and started fighting professionally was just the amount of time, mat time. So having those constant drilling has helped.” [18:50 to 19:10]

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Sage Northcutt slacked training during engineering school days

Sage Northcutt confesses that he had plenty of catching up to do in his career because he was constantly focused on sharpening his stand-up tools over anything.

On top of that, after graduating high school, Northcutt put aside his ambitions of becoming a professional athlete as he was busy chasing his dream to become an engineer.

However, that didn't last long, as his desire to compete took over in a short span of time.

Reflecting on his early days as an athlete, ‘Super’ Sage said:

“When I started off fighting professionally I was and even when I came into the UFC, before ONE Championship, I was going to school to be an engineer at the same time, so my training, there wasn't really much training.” [19:10 onwards]

Watch the full interview here: