UFC President Dana White regrets allowing Sage Northcutt to compete while sick at UFC on FOX 18 this past month.

Northcutt (7-1 MMA, 2-1 UFC) suffered a second-round submission loss to Bryan Barberena (11-3 MMA, 2-1 UFC) at the event and was heavily criticized for a lackluster performance that ended when he tapped to an awkwardly applied arm-triangle choke.

The outcome marked the 19-year-old’s first career defeat, and while he was in high spirits afterward, Northcutt revealed days later that he competed with strep throat. According to “Super,” he felt under the weather to the point he was taken to a doctor and medicated prior to the fight.

“Two days before my fight, I had a real bad relapse of the strep throat and I had to go to the emergency ready clinic,” Northcutt told MMAFighting.com. “The UFC had to take me, then (a doctor) with the UFC had to write a prescription for more antibiotics, stuff like that. So I really couldn’t explain how I felt out there. I felt really horrible.”

Although White was one of the people that gave Northcutt the green light to compete with strep throat, he said in hindsight the decision was wrong. If White had the option of a do-over, he said he would have pulled Northcutt from the bout.

“The kid really wanted to fight and I let him fight and he was sick as hell – I blew it,” White told BigBoyTV while showing a photo sent to him of Northcutt’s throat. “I blew that one, so bad. The kid was super sick and he still wanted to fight, his father said, ‘Listen, we still want to take this fight, we want to take this fight.’ I should have pulled the kid from the fight.”

Despite the fact Northcutt and his team pushed to go through with the contest, White said he should have used more discretion in the situation. Northcutt made his UFC debut at UFC 192 in October then made a quick turnaround to compete at UFC Fight Night 80 in December. He got minimal rest after that, because he turned around quickly again to fight at UFC on FOX 18 in January.

Given Northcutt’s frequent fight schedule, White said it should have made the decision to pull him from the fight that much easier.

“He’s 19 years old,” White said. “He fought three times in (four) months – I should have pulled him.”

Northcutt received a wide variety of reactions following the loss. Some of his fellow fighters were extremely outspoken and took joy in his defeat. Others who are able to better relate to the situation showed support for the youngster.

White said the defeat was undoubtedly a setback, but ultimately Northcutt is still the youngest fighter on the UFC roster and because of that he expects him to have a bright future.

“What was great is when Sage lost and Sage came back to my room, (former UFC champion) Matt (Serra) was in there and gave him a talk,” White said. “Matt said, ‘Listen, I was 26 years old and Shonie Carter caught me with a spinning backfist. You’re 19, you got the world by the balls.'”

For more on UFC on FOX 18, check out the UFC Events section of the site.