Melted by the First Punch of the Fight… ‘Super’ Sage Northcutt’s ONE Championship Dream Has Been Blown Apart by Cosmo Alexandre… This Debut Was the Stuff of Nightmares…
It turns out that ONE Championship already had some pretty good fighters on the roster. First of all Eddie Alvarez got destroyed by Timofey Nastyukhin and now Sage Northcutt has fallen foul of Cosmo Alexandre. The former UFC fighters were given baptisms of fire by the promotion, with only Demetrious Johnson winning out of the high-profile American trio.
Northcutt was billed as one of the UFC’s next big things. Ludicrously chiselled and handsome, he was a promoter’s dream. However, the former karate champion had a mixed record in the cage with 6 wins and 2 losses with the US promotion. He decided to test the waters of free agency and signed for ONE, who’ve heavily marketed the 23-year old Texan.
All that ended in one round in Singapore. Check out the brutal finish below.
Ouchie boy. Rough night for Sage Northcutt. You got to imagine this isn’t what ONE wanted to happen to one of their newest signings
📽 @Grabaka_Hitman pic.twitter.com/xdDW3WkH3H— Jim Edwards (@MMA_Jim) May 17, 2019
KO
First of all, Cosmo Alexandre is no slouch. The Brazilian has 89 kickboxing fights under his belt and has held numerous belts and titles around the world. Now he’s 8-1 in MMA. The 37-year-old veteran has been fighting since he was 18 and is a superb striker. This was never going to be as easy for Northcutt as some people were making out.
And that’s exactly how it turned out. He was obliterated in one round. This was a tale of literally two strikes. Northcutt launched a kick from his karate stance that barely connected. Then Alexandre landed a single hard right hand to end the American’s night. The referee intervened at the 29-second point of the round to award the KO win to Cosmo. What a brutal start to life in Asia for Northcutt.
2️⃣9️⃣ SECONDS @CosmoAlexandre spoils Sage Northcutt's ONE debut with one punch (via @ONEChampionship) pic.twitter.com/kprziBM4yh
— ESPN MMA (@espnmma) May 17, 2019
Title Fight
In the main event 20-year-old, Christian Lee became ONE’s youngest world champion when he defeated former UFC veteran Shinya Aoki to claim the lightweight title. Lee is the younger brother of ONE atomweight champion Angela Lee and is destined to become one of the faces of the promotion now that he’s got the belt.
He battled back against adversity to TKO Aoki in the second round. ‘The Warrior’ spent most of the first underneath the Japanese champion and managed to sensationally escape from a vicious armbar attempt towards the end of the round. It had the makings of a coming out party for the young fighter who has the world at his feet. Based in Hawaii, the Singaporean-American has superstar potential.
Christian Lee STOPS Shinya Aoki in the second round to win the ONE Lightweight World Title! 🤯 @ChristianLeeMMA #WeAreONE #EnterTheDragon #Singapore #MartialArts pic.twitter.com/4owXYgaSGh
— ONE Championship (@ONEChampionship) May 17, 2019
Full Results
For full results from ONE: Enter the Dragon, see below:
Christian Lee def. Shinya Aoki via TKO.
Cosmo Alexandre def. Sage Northcutt via KO.
Saygid Guseyn Arslanaliev def. Amir Khan via KO.
Geje Eustaquio def. Kim Kyu Sung via UD.
Miao Li Tao def. Dedjamrong Sor Amnuaysirichoke via KO.
Undercard
Yoshitaka Naito def. Alex Silva via UD.
Garry Tonon def. Yoshiki Nakahara via submission.
Mei Yamaguchi def. Laura Balin via submission.
Iuri Lapicus def. Shannon Wiratchai via submission.
Rahul Raju def. Richard Corminal via submission.
Kickboxing
Regian Eersel def. Nieky Holzken via UD.
Petchmorakot Petchyindee Academy def. Giorgio Petrosyan via split decision
Samy Sana def. Yodsanklay New Fairtex via UD
Smokin’ Jo Nattwut def. Sasha Moisa via TKO.
Dzhabar Askerov def. Enriko Kehl via UD
Daniel Watwon def. Brown Pinas via SD.
