A&M engineering freshman and Ultimate Fighting Championship fighter Sage Northcutt (7-0) will look to extend his win streak to 8-0 as he steps into the Octagon once more to take on Bryan Barberena (10-3) Saturday.
Northcutt, a lifelong practitioner of the martial arts who made his UFC debut at UFC 192, was originally scheduled to fight Andrew Holbrook (11-0), but Holbrook had to pull out of the bout due to a broken foot. Northcutt was reassigned to Barberena, who weighs in at around 15 pounds heavier than Northcutt.
“My original opponent broke his foot so they had to find me a new opponent, so the new one is a weight class above me,” Northcutt said. “So now I’ve been eating a lot trying to get my weight back up to 170 from where I’m at now, which is 155.”
Northcutt said although his upcoming fight is a quick turnaround from his last fight against Cody Pfister in December, the month-long Christmas break allowed him more time to train.
“My last fight was Dec. 10, so Christmas break gave me some time off from school, so that gave me a lot more time to train because I could just focus on my training,” Northcutt said. “Now that school is started back up it’s a little more difficult to balance everything.”
Northcutt said his training style hasn’t changed since he first made his debut with the UFC.
“You’re always training to your max capacity,” Northcutt said. “If I had trained for a specific opponent, Andrew Holbrook, I’d be in a bad situation because I would have been training to fight him and now that I’m fighting a different opponent — Bryan Barberena — it would have been difficult for me.”
Northcutt’s last two fights have consisted of a technical-knock out victory in his debut and a submission of Pfister with a guillotine choke. He will fight on the main card on the FOX UFC Fight Night card beginning at 8 p.m. Eastern Time in Newark, New Jersey. The fight will be broadcast on Fox 18. The show will be headlined by a light heavyweight bout between Anthony “Rumble” Johnson and Ryan Bader.