“I just sprinted” – Sage Northcutt recalls a scary encounter with a bear during one of his off-road adventures in the woods

Sage Northcutt showed time and again that he can be as fearsome as anyone inside the cage, but there will be limits to his ‘Super’ abilities.

In an interview with ONE Championship, ‘Super’ Sage recalled how he almost got into a close encounter with California’s wildlife.

Northcutt recalled the story of a bear allegedly stalking him during one of his off-road hikes near Lake Tahoe in California.

The lightweight MMA star recounted he tried every trick he knew to evade the wild animal before running for dear life in an attempt to get as much distance between himself and the bear.

Sage Northcutt said:

“There have been some crazy moments. Like, I went up to this spot on the way to Tahoe. It was years back actually. It's a 100-foot waterfall. And I off-roaded out there. I kind of climb up the rocks to get around it. I was by myself, for the first time exploring it. I probably should brought some friends, or at least brought a knife or something [laughs]. The sun was setting, I was walking back, and I had several miles to walk back. Everything got really quiet and then I heard this noise. This was years back when I first got to California.”

He added:

“I didn't know too much about bears. I didn't see anything, but I heard something pretty serious. I thought it was a bear. I'm not 100% sure, but I'm pretty certain. So I hid behind the waterfall. It was freezing water. Super cold. I hid behind the waterfall like Rambo and I was behind the waterfall for maybe 15 minutes straight. The sun was going down, it was getting dark, and I had no cell service. I waited and then all of a sudden, I, like, looked out. I was looking around, like, I think I'm good. I just sprinted. I don't even know how many miles it was. It was probably a couple of miles. As fast as I can go, probably the hardest cardio I've done, and just made it to my truck and I left. But that was pretty memorable, I don't think I'm going to forget that.”

Luckily for Northcutt, he eventually learned to live with the local wildlife in California and never had any close encounters with bears or any of the large creatures in the area.

All Northcutt has left to worry about now is his impending meeting against Japanese legend Shinya Aoki at ONE 165 this Sunday at Ariake Arena in Tokyo.

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Sage Northcutt won’t go submission-hunting against Shinya Aoki

Sage Northcutt always had the potential to become a future world champion, and he believes a win over Shinya Aoki can put him on the right track.

Aoki is one of the greatest Asian fighters of all time, and the former ONE lightweight MMA world champion is the perfect opponent for Northcutt’s quest for immortality.

Northcutt knows he’ll be in for quite a contest against Aoki, and he wants nothing more than to use his strengths against the submission master.

In an interview with the MMA Superfan, Sage Northcutt said:

“Shinya has never been submitted in mixed martial arts and it would definitely be something if I would be able to get a submission on. That'd be something pretty crazy. But we'll see, we'll see where the fight goes.”