Mickey Gall excited to be known as the guy who beat up CM Punk and Sage Northcutt
Mickey Gall knew after beating former WWE superstar CM Punk that it would be attached to his resume for the rest of his career.
Of course, Gall wasn't oblivious to the attention he would receive and he's still recognized quite often in his everyday life as the guy who beat CM Punk.
That being said, Gall is excited to move on with his career and it starts this weekend when he faces Sage Northcutt at FOX UFC Fight Night in Sacramento in the co-main event. Much like calling out Punk before he even got into the UFC, Gall admits it was a calculated move to ask for the fight against Northcutt because he knew it would be another high-profile matchup while still easing his way into the deep end of the welterweight division.
"He's got a nice little name to him. Big names make nice trophies so I want to keep collecting trophies," Gall told the Fight Society podcast this week.
As soon as Gall tapped out Punk back in September he was already asking to fight Northcutt, who burst on the scene as a 19-year-old physical freak first discovered on UFC president Dana White's reality series "Lookin' For a Fight".
White actually found Gall the same exact way when he was searching for an opponent to face Punk so it all made sense from a business aspect to put these two together in a fight.
While Northcutt will enter the fight with more fights in the UFC than Gall has even had during his entire professional career, the New Jersey native still believes he's at a big advantage when it comes to actual skills in the cage.
"I think he's very explosive, very athletic, I'm sure he's strong. You can just look at his body and tell he's got too many muscles," Gall said. "I also see more holes. He's got his right hand and his side kick but his boxing's not very good. He's kind of one dimensional from the feet and on the ground he's not much there.
"I think on paper it's a striker versus grappler match, but I think when we get in there I'll be the dog in there. I'll make it a dog fight and I'll be able to pick him apart."
Gall noted how stylistically this matchup will likely paint his grappling skills against Northcutt's striking, but he doesn't see it quite so black and white.
As a brown belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, Gall clearly holds the higher pedigree on the ground and while he doesn't discount what Northcutt could have learned to get ready for this fight, it still won't be enough in the end.
"It's definitely a mismatch there (on the ground)," Gall said. "We've seen a little bit of Sage and he's been unimpressive on the ground. I'm sure he's working on it, but he needs years and years (to catch up). He needs me sitting on the couch for 10 years and him in the gym just working jiu-jitsu for 10 years to catch up to me and that ain't happening.
"Sage is much better than the first two opponents I fought in the UFC. He belongs there, he belongs in the UFC. So I'm going to beat him up, I'm going to hurt him bad. I might change the way his career goes. I might do something severe to him and then I'm going to show that I'm here and I'm for real and I'm not one to be played with."
While Gall is no longer facing a former professional wrestler, he still managed to pick up an idea from his last opponent when he offered to face Northcutt in a "hair versus hair" match when they meet this weekend. The idea is that the loser of the fight would be forced to shave their head.
Gall loves the idea — perhaps because he's confident he'll be victorious and maybe a little curious what Northcutt would look like with a bald head.
"I'm down," Gall said. "We'll see how he handles defeat. He handled his (Bryan) Barbarena (loss) well I thought and Barberena's a dog, that's not an easy fight for anyone. I think he'll handle it well and I picture him bald. I see him bald."
All jokes aside, Gall knows that this fight is just as important as his debut against Punk because a loss to Northcutt still ends with the asterisk next to his name as the guy who was only brought in to beat up a professional wrestler.
Long term, Gall wants to tackle the top 10 in the welterweight division, but for now he'll accept another moniker to go along with Punk being etched into the win column on his resume.
"I'm still that guy who beat up CM Punk," Gall said. "But I'm really looking forward to being the guy that beat up CM Punk and beat up Sage."
