Sage Northcutt confirms that he's been invited to train with the Diaz brothers

Twenty-year-old Sage Northcutt has a reputation for being too nice despite being a third-degree black belt in karate and one of the brightest stars in MMA. However, a recent loss to Mickey Gall may have the Texan reconsidering his approach to the sport.

With a 3-2 record in the UFC, Northcutt hasn’t quite lived up to the overwhelming hype that followed him into his UFC debut in October of 2015. Some have questioned whether he has the mental toughness to deal with adversity. Well, it appears that Northcutt may have an idea about how to fix this so-called problem.

After being seen backstage with Nick and Nate Diaz after his loss to Gall at UFC on Fox 20, Super Sage confirmed that an offer is on the table with “The MMA Hour.”

“They mentioned getting some training together in the future so we’ll see if that happens,” Northcutt said about his meeting with the Diaz brothers. “They were just super nice guys so it was cool to meet them.”

Obviously, the Diaz brothers carry a certain bad boy aura about them that has rubbed certain people the wrong way. It’s almost in complete contradiction with Northcutt’s persona but it could certainly be something that helps him through his issues in the Octagon. Northcutt revealed that he’s struggled with keeping his emotions bottled up before his fights and needs to add a bit of patience to his repertoire.

“I’m not taking my time and not being calm,” he said about what has gone wrong inside of the Octagon. “I’m still trying to figure out being calm.”

Northcutt also made it clear that he’ll no longer campaign as a welterweight and will make the move to 155 pounds in the immediate future.

As he mulls over whether or not he’ll join the Diaz brothers in Stockton, California, Northcutt will stay busy working with UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley, who has been making waves with his comments on race in MMA as of late. The champion confirmed with “The MMA Hour” that Northcutt’s nice guy act isn’t a shtick and is something that the UFC could use a little more of.

“Some people think he acts like that for the cameras but he’s like this every day, all day,” Woodley said while admitting that his positivity has been contagious. “He’s been a role model to me and my family.”

It appears that Northcutt is still learning a lot about not only MMA, but also the world in general. Woodley explained that a recent visit to the movie theater opened up a whole new world to the young fighter

“We picked Sage up from the airport on Martin Luther King day…we went to watch [the Nat Turner biopic] ‘Birth of a Nation’ together,” Woodley said. “He walked out of there mad because he didn’t realize that those things happened [during times of slavery]. He was like, ‘Why did they do that? I’m mad!’”

Yes, Sage Northcutt is still a wide-eyed 20-year-old who is learning the ways of the world. But it seems that once the fighter gets it down, he could be unstoppable.