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‘Super’ Sage Northcutt believes Shinya Aoki’s grappling game will go out the window once he is on the receiving end of his power.
On Sunday, January 28, Northcutt will return to the Circle when ONE Championship heads to Ariake Arena in Tokyo for a loaded ONE 165 lineup featuring two epic world title fights and the return of Japanese MMA icon Shinya Aoki.
‘Super’ Sage will be looking for his second straight win after scoring an impressive 39-second heel hook submission of Ahmed Mujtaba at ONE Fight Night 10 last May.
Speaking with the promotion, Northcutt is going into the bout focused on exactly what it is — an MMA fight — rather than worrying about Aoki’s exquisite submission skills.
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“You've seen fights before, I'm sure, where you have one of the top grapplers in the world and he gets hit a couple of times, hit hard, and that grappling goes out the window,” Sage Northcutt said.
“I'm looking at it as an MMA match. That's what it is, even though it's going to be in a boxing ring. It's going to be great.”
Aoki hopes to snap a four-bout losing streak against Sage Northcutt
While Sage Northcutt is looking to build off the momentum he gained during his epic return to the Circle last year, Shinya Aoki enters ONE 165 desperately looking for an answer after falling short in his last four appearances with the promotion.
With a pair of knockout losses in MMA and back-to-back losses in submission grappling bouts against Kade Ruotolo and Mikey Musumeci, the 40-year-old icon has seen better days.
But it would be unwise to count out ‘Tobikan Judan’ after he’s delivered some memorable performances against ONE’s top stars, including Marat Gafurov and Eduard Folayang.
Will Aoki get back into the win column with an impressive showing in his home country, or will Sage Northcutt use him as another stepping stone up the lightweight ladder?
ONE 165 airs live on Sunday, January 28, via global pay-per-view on watch.onefc.com.
