Is Sage being held back?

It’s a fairly common thing in the MMA scene, a fighter loses and his credibility is completely torn to pieces. We’ve seen it time and time again. Donald Cerrone loses to Rafael dos Anjos so he’s done. Junior dos Santos loses to Alistair Overeem and he should hang it up. Conor McGregor was submitted by Nate Diaz so he’s really not that good after all. For Sage Northcutt the situation was pretty much the same after being submitted by Bryan Barberena at UFC on Fox 18. Nothing was mentioned of Northcutt’s success in the first round against Barberena. Nothing was even mentioned of Barberena’s own prowess in the second frame of their Welterweight contest. What was talked about however was the fact that Sage Northcutt perhaps didn’t belong in the UFC, that his hype train had been derailed, that he was never deserving of the attention the UFC lauded on him. He’s merely a scrub that was given a golden ticket too soon. There could be a tad bit of truth to these statements, but not to the degree some would have you to believe. Nevertheless, Northcutt is a talented young man with a ton of up side, yet that very potential could be threatened by other forces. Sure, Northcutt lost to a game Barberena after being touted as the next best thing. No harm, no foul, just the nature of the game. But is his progress actually being impeded by outside forces? A recent sparring session with Muay Thai champion Ilya Grad turned disastrous after Sage Northcutt’s father intervened with the young fighter’s training as he prepares for a bout at UFC 200. The constant interruptions and eventual cancellation of the sparring session as a whole led to Ilya Grad posting this statement on his Instagram page.

@supersagenorthcutt came in for sparring today preparing for UFC 200. I want to say something nice because he’s a great 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, 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 they accused me of trying to hurt him and retired him from sparring! ? – I was shocked they pulled him out only 10 minutes into sparring as I was working really clean and even let him off the hook to create space when he needed to. 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 ??

A photo posted by Ilya Grad (@ilyagrad) on Jun 7, 2016 at 3:46pm PDT

Sure, Sage supporters could easily claim that Grad is just trying to spark beef for his own social media benefit, but Grad could have a point. The video below shows the sparring session in full and does bring to light the meddling of the UFC fighter’s father. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EY0c26_rwY8 At this point in his career Northcutt must decide the next best step for himself. That may include leaving his father at home and venturing out on his own. Helicopter parents truly want the best out of their children, but they don’t understand the pressure they place on their kids by being so overbearing. Sage has seemed perturbed by his father’s interjections himself so it’s obvious that something may have to change if Northcutt wishes to improve. Only time will tell Sage decides to sideline his father in hopes of making those improvements. As it stands now, Northcutt could be putting his UFC career in danger. It would be all too sad if the reasoning behind that was an overprotective parent. What do you think Sage Northcutt should do? Follow Generation Iron MMA on Facebook and Twitter. Also, be sure to share, like, and comment to show your support.

Jonathan Salmon is a writer, martial arts instructor, and geek culture enthusiast. Check out his Twitter and Facebook to keep up with his antics.