RISING UFC STAR Sage Northcutt has explained how he was forced to visit an emergency clinic with illness just 48 hours before he suffered the first loss of his professional career on Saturday night.
The 19-year old revealed he was suffering from ‘strep throat’ during an interview on The MMA Hour on Monday night, an infection that forced him to take antibiotics that left him feeling “horrible”.
“Two days before my fight, I had a real bad relapse of the strep throat and I had to go to the emergency ready clinic. The UFC had to take me, then [a doctor] with the UFC had to write a prescription for more antibiotics, stuff like that. So I really couldn’t explain how I felt out there. I felt really horrible.”
The lightweight prospect also revealed it was the third time in just four months that he had suffered a similar infection. This bout, however, was worse than all the rest.
“I’ve never felt like that ever before. Not just the breathing. It felt like I couldn’t concentrate. I wasn’t my normal self. I was having a real hard time hearing.
Like, you can imagine if you fly on an airplane and your ears get stuffed up where they have to pop? It felt like that but times two or three, where I couldn’t even hear my coaches, what they were saying. Even face-to-face, I couldn’t hear anything”
However, Northcutt still believed he could win the welterweight contest with Bryan Barberena and, while some have suggested he should have just pulled out, the young fighter said he didn’t see it as an option.
“You don’t want to pull out of the fight when you have so many people and fans and friends, everybody, and especially the UFC being my job, to be able to go out there and fight for them, you don’t want to pull out and have that ruin the outcome of the event for the amount of people that came to support you and watch you and everything.
“That wouldn’t have been good, and obviously you never want to pull out of that. At least I wouldn’t. So, going out there and fighting, I thought I could do it.
“I felt like I let everybody down and let the UFC down. I let myself down.”
HT: MMA Fighting
