Joe Rogan reacts to Sage Northcutt losing to Cosmo Alexandre

Sage Northcutt come up short in his ONE Championship debut last Friday in Singapore, losing by knockout to striking specialist Cosmo Alexandre in just 29 seconds. Like pretty much everybody else in the MMA community, UFC commentator Joe Rogan has seen the footage of this brutal knockout.

Yesterday during an episode of The Joe Rogan Experience podcast with Brendan Schaub, Rogan gave his take on the fight and the implications of such a tough loss

“Cosmo Alexandre is a world class Muay Thai fighter,” Rogan began. “He is world class as far as striking, it’s a completely different level, but I guess because it was an MMA fight he was willing to take it. They fought stand up and Sage took that karate stance and the dude circled off to his right and landed that f**king right hand, and it was on the [button].”

Cosmo Alexandre has demonstrated world-class striking ability over a lengthy Muay Thai and kickboxing career. He’s battled legendary opposition such as Giorgio Petroysan, Yodsanklai IWE Fairtex, Nieky Holzken, John Wayne Parr, Regian Eersel, and Smokin’ Jo Nattawut, and beaten many of them.

“That the hardest right hand I have ever seen,” Schaub said.

“Cosmo is a beast of a man, he’s a big thick dude with multiple world titles to his name,” Rogan replied.

Whilst acknowledging the performance of Alexandre, both Joe Rogan and Brendan Schaub felt bad for Sage Northcutt and the impact the loss will have on his future career.

“It’s a terrible matchup, I don’t know why they agreed to let him fight that guy,” Rogan said. “It’s just not smart…Sage is good, he’s very good, but these kinds of losses are terrible for his future because they are mismanagement losses in my opinion.”

Schaub agreed and directed comments to Northcutt’s team.

“Sage Northcutt, you’re investing in his future. He’s not ready so you’ve kind of f***cked him.”

Joe Rogan believes ONE Championship wanted to test Northcutt but his skillset was simply not in the same league as Alexandre’s. As a result, it highlighted Alexandre’s world-class ability.

“Cosmo is a f**king Muay Thai [fighter], that’s his bread and butter, he fights Muay Thai, so when Cosmo goes and fights in an MMA fight you would think in at least one area, he’s going to be at a disadvantage,” he said. “If Sage chooses to have a stand-up fight with a world-class stand-up fighter, that’s just bad strategy.”

Schaub didn’t concur as stand-up is also “Sage’s Game.” However, both MMA personalities agree that it was an explosive win by Alexandre and Northcutt deserves a speedy recovery.

This article first appeared on BJPENN.COM on 5/24/2019.