Alright, that might have been a bit harsh, especially since Platinum Perry is a beast in bare knuckle boxing (Luke Rockhold spoke in lenght about the differences between striking bare knuckle compared to MMA, boxing or kickboxing gloves)
But the way MVP was hyped up long ago, you'd think that he would be able to out-karate some much smaller guy with a much smaller frame, and Page was such a big favorite to win...
I don't know if Page styling on some 2-13 and a 3-18-1 "pro boxers" gave him too much confidence, but he really didn't look good in there.
(damn, just noticed that the 2-13 dude,
Michal Ciach,
boxed on the
Tyson Fury vs Whyte card from last year, in which Tommy Fury fought his pre-Jake Paul match, and David Aleyeye won his pre-
Ngannou-Fury card match... he got smashed by former Olympic Youth gold medalist (and eventual WBC title contender)
Karol Itauma
Looking at his record, seems like
"Ciacho" has actually fought on some relatively big cards over the years despite never winning)
Anyway, I have to admit that I might be a tad biased against MVP, because even if I know the ol'
"pro fighters aren't supposed to be role models" argument, I still find it distasteful how MVP goes out of his way to humiliate random journeymen who got picked to give Page an easy win.
Like when he got KTFO by Douglas Lima, Bellator immediately gave "Venom" some much smaller noob, Richard Kiely, who was 0-2 in amateur MMA and 3-1 in pro MMA, the betting odds were crazy
But MVP still spent the entire build up making it personal & talking shit about his opponent, that he "hardly even trains because his opponent sucks, that he would finish him in the first round easy, blablabla scrub blabla"
(in the post fight interview he immediately repeated that he didn't even bother training for that fight)
Yeah, maybe stop cherry-picking if you're not happy fighting scrubs?
It's not like it's out of your hands.
Page had experience, height and reach on his opponent, and still managed to lose a point because he spent so much time showboating and dunking on his opponent and then being an asshole after knocking him down ><
I had already my doubts on MVP because of the Cyborg fight, throwing a pokeball at his almost dead body was pretty tasteless, but I figured he hadn't realized how badly hurt the poor washed up Santos was.
...
Anyway, long story short, I don't mind fighters who showboat, but the difference between the guys like Anderson Silva, Sakuraba, Genki Sudo, Diaz brothers, etc is that they were doing it against dangerous fighters, while Page does it to randos that Bellator cherry-picked just for him.
But it's also kind of a shame that his career went this way.
Look at it this way:
His first fight in Bellator was in 2013, that's a full decade from today, and MVP spent most of his time there fighting the lowest guys he could get away with.
He only got to fight for a vacant WW belt 9 years into his Bellator run (thanks to a very controversial split decision win over Lima, that at the time almost all the MMA medias scored against him
http://mmadecisions.com/decision/12581/Michael-Page-vs-Douglas-Lima ),
and lost to Logan Storley.
Then he tried his luck at BKFC, lost there too, to someone considered then a washed up MMA fighter who won a fun brawl in BKFC against TUF's Julian Lane, but MVP was a pretty big favorite to win that one, and no one gave Platinum a shot.
It's a bit harder to find the odds for that fight than the usual BKFC main events, which is a tad strange, but some sites had Page at -400 & Perry @ +300
It's only
after Perry won against MVP and then Rockhold that he gained the crazy reputation that he enjoys today (and good for him, I've always liked that dude, can't wait to watch him brawl with Eddie Alvarez next week!
)
I wouldn't mind seeing MVP on some UK card, preferably against an actual elite fighter for a change, but usually the UFC doesn't sign Bellator's sloppy seconds, it's supposed to be the other way around.
