AT the UFC 192 over in Houston Texas, Daniel Cormier successfully defended his title by defeating Alexander “The Mauler” Gustafsson by split decision. Eyes of both fighters were battered and bruised as both combatants chose to stand and exchange, and stand and exchange they did for five grueling rounds.
Next up for Cormier is a possible rematch with former UFC light-heavyweight champion Jon Jones, who relinquished his title due to a hit and run incident last April. Another possible contender is UFC light-heavyweight Ryan Bader, who has won his last five fights against quality opposition. Jones-Cormier is the fight the fans want to see, fans will pay good money to watch the fight if and when it happens.
Bader may face the winner of the Jones-Cormier rematch. According to various reports, Jones will be returning to the octagon around the first quarter of next year. Bader beat former UFC light-heavyweight champion Rashad Evans by unanimous decision to make his case as Cormier’s next challenger.
A report on the Jones hit and run incident last April, according to various reports “On September 29, Jones pled guilty to leaving the scene of an accident and was subsequently sentenced to up to 18 months of supervised probation. He was authorized to travel for work-related purposes. If Jones can meet all of his conditions, which include 72 separate appearances for charity or youth outreach, he will avoid a felony charge on his record.” Jones is very fortunate to come out of it with only 18 months of supervised probation and avoid jail time.
Sage Northcutt is a 19-year-old freshman at Texas A&M University, he is also a mixed martial artist who made his debut at UFC 192 as one of the undercards of the Gustafsson-Cormier title bout. He defeated Francisco Trevino in 57 seconds of the first round via rare naked choke. The kid seems like the complete package, ground game to go with a solid stand up style with power in both hands.
Sage plans to take a break from school to concentrate on fighting full time. The MMA Junkie web site reports contain what is, perhaps, a warning to future opponents “So in the future, with more fights to come, I might actually take time off from school and take a break and train full-time. That might be a little scary for some people, because I think I’ll be a totally different animal out there training full-time.” I see a title shot for this kid before he turns 21.