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Earlier this year, when the line-up for ONE X was first announced, it included Eddie Alvarez and Sage Northcutt. It was recently revealed by ONE CEO Chatri Sityodtong that the two UFC vets turned down the opportunity to participate in the historic event.
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Eddie Alvarez's last appearance in the circle was in a losing bid to eventual champion Ok Rae Yoon, while Northcutt suffered a KO loss to Cosmo Alexandre. In the weeks that followed, we've had speculations on who Alvarez and Northcutt's opponents will be. Now that we are down to the final week before the event, no fights were announced involving the American duo.
In a recent interview with Sportskeeda MMA's Andrew Whiteclaw, Chatri Sityodtong shed some light on why we haven't seen any news on the former UFC fighters' futures:
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"We gave Eddie [Alvarez] a fight he turned down. Sage also turned it down, for ONE X. I'm a huge Eddie ALvarez fan, I'm a huge Sage Northcutt fan. We gave Eddie Saygid [Izagakhmaev]. You know, Khabib [Nurmagomedov]'s boy from Eagle FC, and Eddie Turned it down."
As for Northcutt, Sityodtong told a similar story:
"Sage Northcutt, same thing. For Northcutt we gave Shinya Aoki and Sage Turned it down. Then we gave Sage Eduard Folayang and he turned it down. So it's just one of those things, you know. Of course, we do want Eddie and Sage back in action as soon as possible. Hopefully, they'll be back in action after ONE X."
Watch Chatri Sityodtong's interview with Sportskeeda MMA below:
"This event is going to go down as one of the greatest events, if not the greatest event, in martial arts history" - Chatri Sityodtong on ONE X
In the same interview, Chatri Sityodtong expressed extreme pride for what he and his team have accomplished so far. They have indeed put together one of the biggest events in martial arts history. Not just MMA, but kickboxing, Muay Thai, and submission grappling as well. Speaking about ONE X, Sityodtong said:
"I think this event is going to go down as literally one of the the greatest events, if not the greatest event, in martial arts history. It's going to be one of those events, 5 years, 20 years from now, that all the fans will be talking about to their children and grandchildren. Never before have we seen an event of this scale with the highest level of martial artists across mixed martial arts, kickboxing, Muay Thai [and] submission grappling. It's just one of those epic moments, you know, like PRIDE Shockwave. PRIDE Shockwave still gives goosebumps to martial arts fans all over the world."
PRIDE Shockwave is a legendary Japanese event that bears a striking resemblance to ONE X. The now-defunct fight league PRIDE FC partnered with kickboxing organization K-1 to put together a massive event that had a record-setting attendance of 91,107 at the Tokyo National Stadium.
The event, which went down in 2002, featured the biggest names in martial arts at the time, and even included special rules matches. Something tells us that ONE X might just match, if not surpass, PRIDE Shockwave's greatness.
