UFC lightweight Sage Northcutt was groomed for stardom from an early age by his father and trainer Mark Monroe Northcutt.
The elder Northcutt is a controversial figure. Last year he pulled the fighter out of training at the famed TriStar gym in Montreal, citing the potential for getting overworked. In the 90s, his behavior was apparently far darker than simply baffling, including, allegedly, steroid and cocaine trafficking.
The senior Northcutt then prepared his son for a fight with The Fight Lab’s Bryan Barberena by lifting at a local health club, and rolling at a gym with no MMA fighters. That went as you might imagine, and ended with the winning fighter mocking Sage characteristic post-fight celebration.
Afterwards Sage appeared on Ariel Helwani’s The MMA Hour, and said he planned to head back to TriStar.
“I haven’t been at a gym where there is sparring or any MMA fighters at the gym,” explained Northcutt. “The gym I’m specifically at is a Gracie Barra gym, so in the future obviously I will. I can spar and train my technique in different ways, going up to Tristar, getting different training partners, different UFC fighters who are in there, very talented, and getting to learn the most I can out of everything.”
Sage now fights Enrique Marin at UFC 200 on July 9.
A sparring partner, Muay Thai fighter Ilya Grad, recently posted a blistering message directed at Sage’s father. In the interests of fairness, it must be pointed out that the fighter was apparently removed as one of Sage’s sparring partners. But it must be pointed out too that his father prepared him for an MMA fight with Barberena with not actual MMA sparring partners.
“Sage Northcutt came in for sparring today preparing for UFC 200,” wrote Grad. “I want to say something nice about the kid but oh my what a disaster it was. His dad is probably the worst coach I’ve seen in my life. He walks around talking shit from the start like we owe him something, then he interrupting his real coach during the rounds and gives poor Sage negative pet talk in between! Then at the 3rd round when I was just warming up and started pushing the pace they accused me of trying to hurt him and retired him from sparring!
“When I train someone for a fight I want to put them in difficult situations, as you would in a real fight but these clowns just want him to do well and when he doesn’t they accused me of some s*** and made a scene! Never have I seen such bad coaching in my life! You have great potential kid, If you smart tell your dad to stay away from your fight camp so you could actually get some training done!
“Good luck for 200.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/BGXtwNzGWWU
Image courtesy of IG.me/coffmanphotography/
H/T Daniel Plainview
