Shinya Aoki will be retiring soon, and for his last fight, he will grant Sage Northcutt’s wish to face him. The fight between the two will be included at ONE Championship 165, which will be held on January 28 at Ariake Arena in Tokyo, Japan. The event will be huge as the promotion company will make its return to Japan on the said date.
The two were supposed to enter the cage in 2021, but it was never pushed due to different reasons, including COVID-19, which affected Northcutt’s health. Despite this, the young fighter didn’t let go of the plan to face the veteran fighter in the future. In his recent statement, Northcutt reiterated this despite being called out by other artists under ONE.
“People call other people out, but I got my focus on one fight at a time,” Northcutt said weeks ago. “So right now, I’m focused on fighting Shinya. He’s the former champion. He’s nobody to look over. That’s a big fight. I’m excited for that one. Hopefully, we get that here soon. Having your focus on what’s in front of you is the most important thing.
“…I’ve been really focused on Shinya since after my last fight. Post-fight when we talked with all the media, it got brought up by someone out there saying, ‘How about you and Shinya?’ And it got brought up that it might possibly be the next thing. So since then, I’ve just been thinking about that.”
Fortunately for the 27-year-old “Super,” ONE Championship has rebooked the fight after two years of wait. Yet, despite the realization of this dream fight, this won’t be easy for Northcutt (12-3). Although Aoki is now older at 40 and has a four-fight losing streak, the Japanese fighter is still a dangerous foe. In his 47-11 record, Aoki managed to achieve 30 wins by submission.
