20-year-old “Super” Sage Northcutt (7-1-0) returns at UFC 200 and hopes to bounce back into the win column by beating Enrique Marin (8-3-0).

At the age of 19, Sage Northcutt became the youngest fighter signed to the UFC after being featured in the debut episode of “Dana White: Looking For A Fight.” With the signing announced, Northcutt quickly became a huge name in the MMA community, and with his first fight against Francisco Trevino (13-3-0) announced for the UFC 192 Fight Pass prelims, everyone wanted to know what the kid could bring to the table.

Northcutt embraced the hype, and made quick work of Trevino, finishing him via TKO, 57 seconds into the first round. With his dominant debut, the UFC knew that they had a potential superstar in their hands with Northcutt. I mean, who doesn’t want to see a young kid fight in the big leagues and make a name for himself against the best of the best?

With the UFC on board, Northcutt was quickly scheduled and heavily promoted for his next fight, facing off against Cody Pfister (12-5-0) on the main card of UFC Fight Night 80. Within a little over two months of his debut, Northcutt entered the octagon once again, this time with Las Vegas crowd In full support, eager to see him continue his young career in the UFC. After dominating the first round, Sage sunk in a deep guillotine choke, 41 seconds into the second round, to grasp his second victory in the UFC.

Everything seemed perfect for Northcutt until the UFC released the salaries for UFC Fight Night 80, which showed Northcutt earning a massive $80,000 in just his second fight with the promotion. News spread quickly throughout the MMA community and fighters didn’t shy away from speaking about on the situation. More from Opinion Floyd Mayweather’s defensive wizardry

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Bellator heavyweight, Matt Mitrione (UFC heavyweight at the time), went on the “Three Amigos Podcast” saying, “Like Paige [VanZant] and Sage [Northcutt], they get paid more than I do. I’ve had 13 fights in the UFC, should’ve been 14 with Struve, and Paige and Sage both get paid more than I do. That’s ridiculous.”

During his contract negotiations, Aljamain Sterling said in an interview with MMAJunkie regarding his current pay compared with Sage’s, “After it came out, then I really got going. If he can get that, then I should be able to get that, too. I could beat those guys. I’m a (bantamweight). I could bump up two weight classes and take those guys out, and finish them. So it was like, what?”

With an even bigger fan base now, some in his favor, the social media aspect of stardom seemed to take flight. Anything and everything that Northcutt posted to Twitter and Instagram brought forth the internet trolls, pouncing on any detail that could bring the positive and well spoken 19 year old down. More from Cage Pages UFC 219: Two Former Champions added to the Card

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That being said, Northcutt seemed unfazed by all the drama surrounding him. In an interview with MMAJunkie about his high salary, Northcutt said, “I think and I believe that I bring something different to the table. Something that makes people want to tune in and watch. Something that’s of value to the UFC. I think that’s really important with the UFC, and people can see that with me.”

The UFC kept the ball rolling with Northcutt, announcing Andrew Holbrook as his next opponent for UFC on Fox 18; this time with less than two months after his fight with Pfister. After an injury forced Holbrook to pull out of their fight, Bryan Barberena (12-3-0) stepped in with one week’s notice, but pushed the fight up a weight class to welterweight.

Barberena weathered Northcutt’s initial first round storm, and near the end of the first round, it looked like Northcutt injured his leg after a hard kick to the body of “Bam Bam.” Once the second round started, Northcutt landed a cartwheel kick on the follow through of a missed punch, but it didn’t seem to do much damage to Barberena. In fact, Barberena took advantage of the grounded Northcutt, entering and exposing his ground game. After wearing down Northcutt, Barberena locked in an arm triangle from half guard which forced Northcutt to tap.

With Northcutt being handed his first professional MMA loss, it didn’t take long for fighters and the MMA community to criticize the youngster. Also, as much as I respect and enjoy Joe Rogan, I don’t think it was fair for him to tell the viewers that it was a quick tap. It didn’t need to be said, and I think it just gave people more hate to throw at Northcutt.

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It sucked watching fighters genuinely happy to see a 19-year-old kid lose on the biggest stage. Just take a look at some of these tweets:

Omg what a pussy!!! Dude gave up. No heart. Ufc give me his 40/40 next time cause no fucking way I would get finished with that shit! Lol — James Vick (@JamesVickMMA) January 31, 2016

Woo!!! Tapped like a little Bitch & Tried to tel the Ref Different!! @sagenorthcutt VonFlu/Got You @bryan_barberena pic.twitter.com/xO4jNshOtq — Tony Ferguson (@TonyFergusonXT) January 31, 2016

Wow, we got a new president of the quick tap club. — Mike Brown (@mikebrownmma) January 31, 2016

On the flip side, it was great to see fighters reaching out to Sage, reassuring he has a bright future ahead of him.

Poor kid. So much pressure at a young age. So much potential though. You have a bright future sage! — michael (@bisping) January 31, 2016

talk shit about 19 year old you're jealous of him because he makes more money than you you are a bum @arielhelwani https://t.co/1LhYwOhogq — khabib nurmagomedov (@TeamKhabib) January 31, 2016

You ever want to come on out to the ranch. Come'on fuck training I'll show ya how to live 👍👍 https://t.co/ELT9ctusBN — Cowboy Cerrone (@Cowboycerrone) February 1, 2016

Following his loss to Bryan Barberena, Sage Northcutt made the decision to train full time with Firas Zahabi at Tristar Gym. A gym that has been known to hold top tier talent such as Rory MacDonald and Georges St-Pierre, fighters who, by the way, are now training with Northcutt.

I feel like the hate that the fighters gave Sage is completely unwarranted. If a promotion/organization offered you a large amount of money and want to push you as an up and coming star, you would be stupid to turn it down. The UFC pushed and promoted this kid at a ridiculous pace, and it backfired. Fighting once every two months is ridiculous, especially for a 19 year old kid that has so much time to learn and grow.

It’s been six months since Sage Northcutt’s fight with Bryan Barberena, and with UFC 200 proving to be the biggest card in the promotion’s history, Northcutt is set to take on Enrique Marin in front of an anticipated sold-out crowd. It will be interesting to see how much Northcutt has improved since training at Tristar full time, and if he employs a new game plan instead of being the first round firecracker that we saw in his previous fights.