The Grudge Match Finally Went Down as Michael ‘Venom’ Page Decisioned Paul Daley to Progress to the Next Round of the Bellator Welterweight Grand Prix…
It was billed as the biggest grudge match in the history of Bellator. Michael ‘Venom’ Page finally fought Paul ‘Semtax’ Daley in Connecticut. Page and Daley famously despise each other, and have been openly going back and forth in interviews and on social media.
With an unbeaten record of 13-0 going into this one, Page is one of the most hyped and criticised fighters on the Bellator roster. He’s simultaneously seen as a scintillating striker who has been overprotected by the top brass to protect his unbeaten record.
In stark contrast, Daley had fought a total of 57 times in MMA, with 40 wins and 16 defeats. Vastly more experienced, he’s famous for his KO power. Most believed that this was going to be an exciting standup war. The truth was quite different.
Boom goes the dynamite! #Bellator216 pic.twitter.com/oJLLS88CH4
— BellatorMMA (@BellatorMMA) February 17, 2019
Cagey
Round one was as cagey as a fight in a cage could be. It went 10-9 to Page after he took total control of the centre, with Daley circling along the fence. Page connected with a head kick, while Daley didn’t land a single shot in the second.
The second was closer, with Daley managing to take the fight to the ground with a very long shot at a takedown. He spent the last half of the round scrambling for the takedown. The most dramatic moment happened when Page was clipped and lost balance, but the bell stopped anything else from happening.
Daley takes it to the ground. #Bellator216 pic.twitter.com/aNnycosiME
— BellatorMMA (@BellatorMMA) February 17, 2019
Close
Page was clearly happy to treat this as a points sparring match, as he continued to feint and land shots on his opponent. Even they weren’t particularly hard, they were slick and sharp. . Daley managed to get a takedown at the second attempt. He landed some hard shots as Page got back to his feet, doing enough to take the round.
Daley demonstrated some of the smartest strategy of his career. He took Page down again the fourth round, dominating from the top position. However, this just served to annoy ‘Venom’ who responded with a flying knee when he got back to his feet and then got a takedown of his own, followed by some heavy ground and pound.
If you scored the second and third rounds for Daley, it could well have been even going into the fifth and final stanza of this fight. Page’s shocking takedown defence was taken advantage of again. Eventually, he was able to reverse the position and tried for a rear-naked choke. When that wasn’t happening, he just went with strikes.
#Bellator216 pic.twitter.com/LfwICuDrgo
— BellatorMMA (@BellatorMMA) February 17, 2019
Decision
The result was going to be controversial in the end, whichever way it went. Michael ‘Venom’ Page saw his hand raised, to loud boos from the Connecticut crowd. Page had more output than Daley which just did enough for him to get to win. He said:
“He didn’t come here to fight. MVP came here to fight.”
Page and Douglas Lima faced off afterwards in the cage. They’re set to fight on May 11. Lima will surely be the favourite going into this one. It was a disappointing fight at the end of the day. Why wasn’t this in London?
