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Revenge is a dish best served cold, and that is something ‘Super’ Sage Northcutt hopes to attain when he meets Shinya Aoki at ONE 165 on January 28.
During the press conference to announce the star-studded cast in December last year, both fighters went face-to-face in a staredown.
Northcutt, being the nice guy he is, offered his hand to the Japanese martial arts icon as a kind gesture. However, the latter pulled away somewhat rudely, even refusing to look his rival in the eye.
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With no love lost, at least on Aoki’s end, fans are primed to be in for a treat when this hotly-anticipated matchup gets underway.
For his part, Sage Northcutt doesn’t have anything bad to say about the incident. Instead, the Evolve MMA and Team Alpha Male affiliate prefers to do his talking inside the ONE Championship Circle.
Speaking to the promotion, he had this to say on the rather heated confrontation:
“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.”
Sage Northcutt vs Shinya Aoki is one to watch at ONE 165
Both superstars were booked to face each other for Sage Northcutt’s sophomore outing inside the Circle, but the American superstar was forced out of the tie after he picked up COVID-19 during fight camp.
Despite that derailment, ‘Super’ Sage made his intentions known about a fight against ‘Tobikan Judan’ after his quick submission win over Ahmed Mujtaba at ONE Fight Night 10 in May last year.
On the day when ONE Championship’s return to Japan was confirmed, ‘Super’ Sage finally got his wish as he was penciled in to face Aoki inside the Ariake Arena next week.
With the added bit of intensity on top of the interesting clash of styles when they go toe-to-toe, this key lightweight MMA tilt seems to have all the ingredients of being a fun night out in the office for both men.
ONE 165 airs live on Sunday, January 28, via global pay-per-view on watch.onefc.com.
