Agreed. It is the reason why he never had a nice MMA career. Spent way too much time doing that. Fighting in a ring doesn't suit his style at all because he can easily get trapped in a corner. He belongs in the octagon. IMO, Raymond Daniels is more gifted than Stephen Thompson and Michael Page. This guy can actually throw spinning kicks with either leg comfortably, making his kicks very unpredictable, unlike Thompson for instance who never spin kicks with his left leg. He's 39 now. What a waste.

Two names that haven't been mentioned yet:

20-year-old Tenshin Nasukawa (Kyokushin karate) has got a lot of hype, but unlike Sage Northcutt, this guy has the right mentality. He is mean when in fight mode and has got the right amount of cockiness. Lots of experience in kickboxing too and has faced all kinds of strikers, from Muay Thai fighters to boxers.

Jamie Faulding. I've been following this prospect for some time now. Actually knows how to use the side kick. Will be hard to deal with if he develops a good submission game and fights like Ryan Hall. Is still very green though.

Forgot all about young Tenshin ~ Kid is a beast ~ Just needs to be careful of being thrown to the wolves in One FC lol ~ Don't want him against a Cosmo or Nieky this early in his career ~ Sage will never be the same ~ oof

This post was edited by Oathkeeper on Aug 1 2019 04:37am

"Against a Cosmo or Nieky"? You should take a look at Tenshin's kickboxing career/record. Relatively speaking, he is a Cosmo or a Nieky. He beat the best fighters in kickboxing at his weight class. But Cosmo and Nieky are too old to become a complete MMA fighter, unlike this kid.

Def agree he's like 32 -0 kickboxing professionally isn't he? ~ comment was more directed at hoping he avoids serious damage prior to his prime ~ which at his age is a solid 5-10 years away ~ I guess the Sage KO is fresh in my mind and led to my thought process in this comment and it happens often that young fighters are put in bad match ups as a test ~