ONE 165 had a surprising last-minute change when Sage Northcutt decided to pull out from his fight against Shinya Aoki. According to the American fighter, two of his coaches experienced “visa issues,” leading to the decision to withdraw from the match.
Northcutt was expected to face Aoki in a 170-pound MMA bout, which would be the last of the Japanese fighter before starting his retirement. Prior to the event, “Super” expressed excitement in anticipation of the fight, but on Sunday, the young fighter suddenly withdrew. Northcutt, nonetheless, explained in a recent Instagram post about his decision:
“I’m sorry to all my fans and to my opponent Shinya Aoki for not fighting tonight,” Northcutt posted on Instagram. “There were some last-minute visa issues with two of my coaches and they are on their way back to the US right now. One Championship offered to help by giving me a world champion Jiu Jitsu coach for a replacement, but not having my coaches that I trained my whole camp with out there with me to compete against arguably the worlds greatest MMA submission artist of all time wasn’t going to be best for me. Thank you Chatri and One Championship for trying your best to make things work at the last minute. Again I apologize to Shinya and everyone that was tuning in. I know that One 165 is an incredible card with incredible world class talent that everybody will still enjoy.”
Thankfully, Aoki was not left without a partner in the cage after John Lineker stepped in on very short notice, giving him just hours to prepare for an open-weight bout. “Hands of Stone” had a two-fight winning streak he obtained at ONE Fight Night 14 and ONE Fight Night 13, with the last occurring last September. However, taking the fight was apparently a mistake for Lineker as it ultimately snapped his streak after Aoki defeated him via submission at just the 3:00 mark of Round 1.
