The best and worst from UFC Fight Night 133

#3 Best: Northcutt is all heart

Sage Northcutt made quite the comeback to defeat Zak Ottow

While it looked like a flash knockdown at the time, the replay shown between rounds appeared to show that Zak Ottow’s short right hand in the opening seconds of the first round simply destroyed Sage Northcutt. His eyes rolled back into his head and for all intents and purposes, he was out. But Northcutt – a fighter who’s been accused of lacking heart before – somehow managed to survive the terrible start to the fight and by the end of the first round, it was he who was on offense – using a guillotine attempt to mount Ottow and do some real damage.

He was taken down to begin the second round – his takedown defense is clearly still a major weakness and one that Team Alpha Male will need to shore up if he’s to crack the upper echelon of the Welterweight division – but once he got up he peppered Ottow with some really crisp strikes, hurting him on a couple of occasions and knocking him down before finishing him off with some pretty violent hammer fists.

We’ve seen glimpses of Northcutt’s potential before but this was his best UFC showing by far – he showed a lot of heart to come back from a bad first round, and then showed some serious striking power to put Ottow away in the second. And it’s easy to forget because he seems to have been around forever now, but Sage is still only 22. If he can continue to improve at this rate – and can avoid taking too much punishment – then he might be a future contender after all.