Urijah Faber explains what injuries Sage Northcutt sustained in ONE Championship loss
Sage Northcutt was set for his ONE Championship debut against a kickboxer in Cosmo Alexandre. There, many believed Northcutt was going to win the fight after having success in the UFC. But, that was not the case. Rather, it ended very badly for the former UFC fighter. He was knocked out cold in just 26 seconds to end his ONE Championship debut in disappointment.
Not only did he lose, but he also suffered a bevy of injuries. He was in surgery for hours which he explained in a social media post.
“Fresh out of surgery…I had 8 fractures and a nine-hour intense operation,” Northcutt explained in a recent Instagram post. “Feeling blessed for the amazing care and all the support from [ONE Championship] my family/friends and fans!”
Meanwhile, his coach and mentor in Urijah Faber detailed the extent of the injuries and what went wrong for the prospect.
“Twenty-five seconds in, really, he got stalked — Cosmo, who’s an amazing kickboxer and a big, strong guy, came out and pressed the action right off the bat,” Faber said on the MMA Hour of Sage Northcutt (via transcript MMA Fighting). “Right off the bat, did like a couple of stutter steps, switch-step fakes to kind of corral Sage in. Sage went one way and then the other way, first time in a ring, and literally gets manhunted with the nastiest punch and crushes his whole face.
“Basically splintered his cheek into 30 pieces and broke his orbital bone. He had eight different fractures and literally they had to pick the pieces of the bone fragments out — 30 different pieces out of his face.”
In the end, it was not the debut Northcutt, nor his team was looking for. Although, Faber is confident Northcutt will only come back stronger and win his next fight in ONE Championship.
