Sage Northcutt reveals it took “a year and a half” to heal from injuries after ONE debut

‘Super’ Sage Northcutt stated that it took him 18 months in order to recover from the injuries sustained in his disastrous ONE Championship debut.

Northcutt made his triumphant return at ONE Fight Night 10 earlier this month, scoring an impressive first-round submission against lightweight contender Ahmed Mujtaba. The victory came four years removed from his ONE Championship debut, a fight that ended in tragedy as the Texas native sustained a series of brutal injuries requiring more than a year of recovery.

Speaking on the Fistivities with KB & Renato Laranja podcast, Sage Northcutt revealed that the eight fractures in his face, the result of a 29-second knockout loss against Brazilian striker Cosmo Alexandre, required nine hours of surgery to repair and a year and a half to fully heal.

“It took some time to heal up, for sure. And the hardest part for me was, I got to say, it was at least a year and a half healing up,” Northcutt said. “And kinda getting back out there. But, you know, like a few months after that, after the fight, I was trying to get back out there, do some kind of cardio.”

Sage Northcutt was originally expected to return in 2021 for a showdown with former ONE lightweight champion Shinya Aoki at ONE on TNT 4. ‘Super’ suffered another setback, as he was forced to battle an extremely difficult bout of COVID-19. Blood clots also prevented him from returning as expected.

Today, Northcutt is sporting a clean bill of health and finally has his first ONE Championship win under his belt. What’s next for ‘Super’ remains to be seen, but if he gets his wish, the photogenic superstar will finally square off with Shinya Aoki inside the Circle.

The ONE Fight Night 10 replay can be watched live via Amazon Prime Video in North America.