Sage Northcutt Says He’s Coming Back Better Than Ever at UFC 214

Sage Northcutt appeared on the MMA Hour ahead of his fight with Claudio Puelles at UFC 214. Highlights and the video are below:

On having doubts after his illness struggles: “I was a little worried because I would train very hard, I’d been feeling great, and then out of nowhere, I’d get kind of sick, all of a sudden. Of course, as anybody would do who fights, especially a UFC fighter, they would try to train through it, so I would train through it, and then it would just run my body down more and more.”

On how he’s feeling now: “I had my tonsils removed about 4-1/2 weeks ago, so that’s all healed up. I should be better than ever, stronger than ever, shouldn’t be getting sick anymore, so I’m excited about that.”

On his rough year and a half: “During my first loss in the UFC, I did have really bad strep throat and…it was very horrible. But then throughout that, after the fights, the next few fights I did have after that, even though I didn’t have strep throat the day of the fight, it might have been a week before the fight or two weeks before the fight, but throughout the fight camp and throughout the different camps for my fights that I had the last few fights, I was very sick. So, I would get sick, I would heal up, get sick again.”

On the difficulty of trying to push through: “Your whole body’s fatigued. If anybody’s ever had strep throat, it’s like the worst kind of strep throat. It was actually eating holes in my tonsils so if you looked at a picture, they looked like little pits in my tonsils. And what happened was, different antibiotics would kill off the bacteria, but it wouldn’t kill off all 100 percent of it, so it would come back stronger, come back stronger and stronger again, and it would just affect my whole body, my strength, my speed, my cardio, my breathing, the amount of pressure that you have on your throat, the fatigue of the muscles, just everything. If I had it for the day of the fight, that was horrible, if I had it weeks before the fight or a month before the fight, it would take me out for weeks of my training and just affect me all around.”

On fighting at lightweight: “You know, I just went up to fight that fight at 170 and I think 155 is my weight class for now that I’ll be at. I’m walking around a little bit lighter, so that way I make the weight easier. I’m stronger, I should be faster, and not have to struggle to make that weight cut at 155. So hat should all work out great.”

On fighting on the card: “I think it was for the best. And now, UFC 214 Jon Jones and Cormier for the main event, I’m excited for that, are you kidding?”