Northcutt: Gall’s opponents were like fighting your dad who doesn’t train

UFC welterweight Mickey Gall made his pro debut less than a year ago, with UFC president Dana White cageside for an episode of the Lookin’ For A Fight reality series. Gall won and immediately called out Phil ‘CM Punk’ Brooks, who had signed with the UFC, and begun training.

Gall was given a fight in the UFC against less-than-stiff competition, presumably to see if he could handle the big show jitters. He won and suddenly he was in one of the most talked about fights of the year.

CM Punk showed heart but no skills in their fight at UFC 203. Gall shows skills and charisma. Once again he called out who he wanted to fight, this time naming Sage Northcutt.

Northcutt’s father Mark spoke to The UnderGround last week, and said his son was not fighting Gall or anyone at UFC 205 in New York on November 12, due to a staph infection. However, Sage appeared recently on Ariel Helwani’s The MMA Hour, and said he wants to fight Gall, in December.

“Me and my team reached out UFC. That’s great with me and I am looking forward to it,” said Northcutt, as transcribed by Adam Guillen Jr. for MMA Mania. “There is nothing confirmed. We are talking to UFC about it and hopefully in December, that’s what we are looking at.”

Northcutt fights at lightweight and Gall at welterweight, but that will not be an issue. Northcutt will drop to 155 temporarily.

“I like the fact that it’s 170 for this fight because my previous fights I’ve had trouble making weight,” said Northcutt. “So after this fight, I’m going to go back and figure it out.”

Northcutt also offered some criticism of Gall’s opponents to date.

Gall’s first pro opponent, Ron Templeton, is now 26. It was his pro debut as well, and he had gone 2-2 as an amateur. Gall’s second opponent, Mike Jackson is now 31. He had his sole amateur fight in 2009, and lost that via decision. Then he returned at UFC Fight Night 82 in February and lost to Gall in 45 seconds. The UFC might have been wiser to match CM Punk with Jackson, rather than with the BJJ brown belt Gall. Gall’s third pro fight was vs. CM Punk, who is 37.

“His previous two fights in the UFC, he came in and fought two guys, which I’ve never seen happen before, that had an MMA record of nothing,” said Northcutt.

“They had no pro MMA record, no amateur MMA record. They had no fights at all. Him going in and fighting guys with no experience, both close to 40 years old, it’s like fighting someone’s dad that has trained very little for a fight.”

“All I can say is that I have better grappling than him and I believe I have better standup. If I go out there, I can take the fight wherever I want. If I want to go out there and knock him out, I can do that. If I want to take him down and submit him, then I believe I can do that also.”