Former UFC prospect Sage Northcutt would appear to be the latest fighter to suffer from the lingering effects of what’s been dubbed as ‘Long-Covid’.
These days Northcutt fights for ONE FC and was scheduled to fight Shinya Aoki on April 28th, but the promotion have now revealed that his continued battle with symptoms of Covid-19 has forced him to withdraw from the bout.
“Due to lingering COVID-19 issues, Sage Northcutt is not cleared by his doctors to compete on April 28th ONE on TNT IV,” a statement from the promotion reads. “This is disappointing for ONE, Turner, but most importantly Sage and his family as they were looking forward to this and spent months preparing.
“Sage had COVID a few months ago and was doing his best to get himself in a good place but late last week the doctor, during his final checks, could not clear him.”
Northcutt left the UFC for One FC in 2018, despite being on a three-fight winning streak at the time, but it’s so far proved to be an ill-fated move as was brutally KO’d after just 29 seconds in his promotional debut against Cosmo Alexandre, leading to him requiring facial reconstruction surgery in addition to a two-year layoff from the sport.
The fight against Aoki had been set to be his comeback fight, but now that’s been nixed and the Japanese star will fight Eduard Folayang instead.
Northcutt joins a number of other high-profile fighters who have struggled to shake off the effects of Covid-19, including UFC stars Khamzat Chimaev, Alexander Volkanovski, Cody Garbrandt and Paulo Costa.
