ONE: ‘X’ takes place next Saturday and some of the promotion’s biggest names will be in action. But there are two notable absentees.
According to ONE founder and CEO, Chatri Sityodtong, both Eddie Alvarez and Sage Northcutt turned down fights.
Speaking to Sports Keeda on Friday, the ONE boss said,
“We gave Eddie a fight he turned down. Sage also turned it down for ONE: ‘X’. I’m a huge Eddie Alvarez fan. I’m a huge Sage Northcutt fan. We gave Eddie Saygid (Izagakhmaev) Khabib’s boy from Eagle FC and Eddie turned it down. We gave Sage Shinya Aoki, and Sage turned it down.”
Multiple offers
According to Chatri that want the only fight offer Northcutt rejected,
“Then we gave Sage Eduard Folayang and he turned it down. So, it’s just one of those things. I do want Eddie and Sage back in action, and hopefully they will be back very quickly after ONE: ‘X’. I’m a huge fan (of both) and I wish they were here on the card for out tenth anniversary show.”
Alvarez was last in action at ONE on TNT IV in April last year. The former UFC and Bellator champion lost a unanimous decision against Ok Rae Yoon who now holds the lightweight belt after going on to beat Christian Lee five months later.
Northcutt has not competed since suffering an horrific facial injury at he hands of Cosmo Alexandre on his ONE debut in 2019. Aoki and Folayang are both on the card, the former faces Yoshihiro Akiyama while the latter faces John Wayne Parr in a Muay Thai fight.
