Michael “Venom” Page returned to action at UFC London last night, or should we say inaction based on what we witnessed in the cage?
Page electrified the O2 Arena audience during his walkout and the fighter announcements, and then put them to sleep during his 15 minute decision win over fellow Brit Sam Patterson. The two did a whole lot of feinting and backpedaling, and had “the least action of any fight ever, next to Derrick Lewis and Francis Ngannou,” according to Joe Rogan.
Rogan wasn’t in the London
commentary booth. Instead he was recording a Fight Companion podcast at his studio in Austin, Texas. That same studio played host to Michael “Venom” Page for an episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, and it was clear from that interview that Rogan is a huge MVP stan. That didn’t stop him from trashing the fight, although he suggested perhaps matchmakers were to blame over the fighters.
“It’s interesting that they didn’t think of this when they booked this fight,” Rogan said. “They didn’t think, ‘These guys are training partners, this might be a stinker?’ Maybe they couldn’t get anybody to fight Venom Page in London? That might be a problem, too. It might have been a bunch of dudes said no and Patterson was like ‘Let’s go.'”
“This is a crazy bad fight. That’s a crazy matchup. It’s literally the last guy you want to fight a style like that, someone who understands it … I bet it was one of the things where there’s not a lot of guys lining up to take that fight, because he makes you look so stupid. But this dude is like, ‘I’ve been in there with him 100 rounds, I know how to fight it.’ It’s a big advantage, man! Giant advantage, knowing what that distance and speed is like.”
“Props to Patterson cuz this is the first dude that Venom Page has fought that doesn’t look like he doesn’t belong in there, other than Ian Garry,” he added. “Ian Garry’s a bad motherf–ker, dude. He figured out that style. ‘I’ll just grab a hold of him, drag him to the ground, beat him there.’ [Patterson] stooed up with him.”
The problem for Page potentially extends past this fight too, according to Rogan.
“I think it’s bad for him,” Rogan said following the fight. “It’s not good. Here’s the problem: now people know how to fight him. People are going to watch that and go, ‘Oh, just don’t engage. Make him engage.'”
Page has always relied on counter-striking a bit too much, leading to many of his fights having long lulls with sporadic moments of excitement. In the past, there’s been enough of these flashy explosions to temper fans’ opinions on his fighting style. But that may be changing as his opponents refuse to fight his style of fight, leading to duds like we saw last night.
