Michael "Venom" Page Aims To Make Believers In The Hands-Down Style at Bellator 153
4/20/2016
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Dave Willford
At
Bellator 153 this Friday night on
SPIKE, Bellator welterweight contender
Michael “Venom” Page (9-0) will fight
Jeremie Holloway (7-1). Thus far in his career, London’s Page has won eight of his nine bouts in the first round, often in spectacular, flashy fashion. Much of the reason for Page’s success so far comes from his longtime training in freestyle kickboxing, a limited contact “point fighting” discipline, which attributes to
his hands down striking style. While most MMA strikers are told to keep their hands up to guard themselves, Page’s style of using constant movement and his athletic ability have so far served him well inside the Bellator cage.
Page’s martial arts background largely is rooted in his family, which practiced
Lau Gar Kung Fu before he was born. His father and four of his siblings are kickboxing world champions, so Page naturally started training and competing at an early age as well. He explains, “One part of my family was in Lau Gar Kung Fu, and then we kind of crossed over into kickboxing later on. Being literally raised in martial arts helped in many different ways. That would be your focus, your discipline, your respect. Just so many different things. It was good. Having my older brothers, older sisters, younger brothers, Dad, Mum, all do it. Uncle, auntie, it was just a martial arts family. But, I just enjoyed doing it.”
After years of competing in
freestyle kickboxing, and earning ten world championships of his own, Page then decided to make the move to mixed martial arts. “There were a few reasons. Mainly, I wanted a new challenge. I felt like I was going around in circles, and I wasn’t gaining much in the sport of kickboxing and the point scoring that I did. That style of kickboxing is quite small with regard to the sponsorship, television.
You’re not exposed to that many people. The circuits are very small. We’re also spending money to represent our own country and things like that. After a while, I kind of got tired of doing the same things, seeing the same people, and just going around doing the same competitions, so I wanted something different. I just saw MMA as somewhere where I’d actually have to learn as well as just going in to compete. Becoming a student, for me, was the most exciting part of it.”
As with most significant life changes, Page did have some initial trepidation in making the change to mixed martial arts, particularly since the style he brought into the sport went against most MMA orthodoxy. A big concern was that coaches would try to totally remake his game, tossing out the unconventional skills he brought over from point fighting. Page explains, “To be fair, that’s what I was actually worried about. Weirdly enough, my coach was instantly appreciative of what I did. He actually said to me
‘If that style has worked for you for so many years, it’s worked for a reason. So, I’m going to figure out a way to make it work for you in MMA.’ And that’s what he did. He started working alongside with me. He started to learn and watch point scoring for himself as well, which made it easier for him to coach me. He would take out a few things that would get me in trouble when incorporating wrestling and jiu jitsu, but other than that, that was it. It was just adapting a lot of stuff. This is why I work with him so well.” So with a coach who did not demand he switch over to a more conventional style, Michael Page began his mixed martial arts career.
Michael "Venom" Page dismantles his opponent (Photo Credit: Bellator MMA)
Coming from a pure striking discipline, the first order of business for Page was to develop ground skills. So far, he’s happy with his progress. “When you start something from scratch, that’s definitely going to be the first place you see improvement,” says Page. “Just my mindset towards learning helps with my progression, and I have progressed very, very fast. At the same time, my standup is my area of expertise, and I’ve actually learned almost as much in my standup as I have in my wrestling and jiu jitsu.
So, all-around, I just feel like I’m progressing.”
Page’s unconventional striking turned out to work well in his early fights. “There are very few people with my style in MMA at the moment. The kickboxing art itself, like I said, it’s point scoring. It’s almost like a fencing match. You’re constantly on your toes, you’re constantly moving around. It’s all for one moment, or one interaction. So, you’re moving around, measuring, teasing, almost like a really fast-paced chess game, just all for one attack. I find that’s very different than a lot of kickboxing that you see, where sometimes people even take hits to get into the position they want to get to.
My style is literally about hitting and not getting hit at all, so it is a very unique style for MMA. Just because people haven’t seen it.”
As a matter of fact, Page sees the movement he uses in his standup as helping prevent takedowns. “I was actually getting myself into trouble initially, and this is where my coaches came in and had to doctor some of what I was doing.” But after a few tweaks to his game, the movement proved effective, Page explained, “It definitely does help, the movement aspect makes it hard for wrestlers or anybody to get an accurate line to shoot and get the takedown. But there were still a lot of positions where I left myself open. Which is again, the enjoyment of learning, and doctoring my game.
I feel I’m in a position where I understand it so much more now. It’s just a case of adding moves.”
At 6’3”, Venom is taller than most welterweights, which works well with his style of using distance and movement. But that’s just a happy coincidence, says Page, “It’s weird, because being tall when I was younger was actually a disadvantage, because I ended up fighting children who were a lot older than me, but I was of the same height. Their muscle build and muscle control was a lot better than mine at the time. I was very gangly, and I wasn’t as in control as I am obviously now.” So the answer to the “chicken or the egg” question is that the style developed first, and then his height and reach just made it more effective. “Nowadays it’s definitely an advantage. So I’m going to use it.
My style is always my style, and it helps to be a bit taller than my opponents.”
While he doesn’t want to make wholesale changes to his existing style, Page is open to adapting other things into it to improve his effectiveness in mixed martial arts.
“I get inspired by many different things, capoeira, things I watch in movies.” Beyond that, he’s trained with movement coach
Ido Portal, who is known in MMA circles from working with Conor McGregor.
“I actually met Ido Portal and kind of went with some of the stuff he was doing. It really does help. For me, it wasn’t a case of incorporating it and making it a fighting style. As you say, my fighting style is already quite fluid and I have a lot of movement to it already, but he does a lot of what he calls ‘bodyproofing’ which is the joint areas. All the areas where I constantly get small injuries, he helps to strengthen, both in by stretching those areas out, and also by building the strength up in those areas. That’s the kind of stuff that I continue to do. That’s the part of it that I took on board the most. It’s helped to strengthen my body all around, so it’s good.”
With eight first round finishes, it’s surprising that he doesn’t plan to come out fast and finish in the initial round. “To be fair, that’s literally how the fights have developed. A lot of the times I aim to finish my opponents more in the second round. Because as I’ve said, it’s a chess match that I’m used to playing. I’m used to landing shots and figuring out my distance and then trying to find the finishing blow later on in the fight, once I actually understand my opponent and what my opponent wants to do. It just so happened that in landing shots and figuring out my distance, I’m knocking out my opponents and it’s been working out well.”
Michael "Venom" Page makes his walkout to the Bellator cage (Photo Credit: Bellator MMA)
For the fight against
Jeremie Holloway, he doesn’t anticipate much going differently from his past fights. “It’s going to be the same thing. I’m just going to put my hands on him and put him to sleep. He’s not going to handle the speed. He’s not going to handle the movement. He’s just not going to know what happened until he wakes up.” While Holloway is a new opponent with a good record of 7-1, Page feels he will fight much like one of his earlier opponents. “I think
Ricky Rainey actually trains with him. And he’s a person that I’ve fought already. He tried to come out fast as well. Again, it’s the same thing. I just, as you do a wild horse, you tame them first. And that’s what I do.
The movement mesmerizes a lot of people. The strikes that I land, because they’re so accurate, usually slows them down or frustrates them into having to think about what they are doing because they’re getting hit so much. And the second they’re tamed, then they’re in trouble.”
Fighting on the main card of the event headlined by recent Bellator signing
Benson Henderson is a bonus, to see how former WEC and UFC lightweight champ Henderson performs in his Bellator welterweight debut. “Obviously I’m going to be on the same show where Benson Henderson is fighting his first fight, so for me that’s good to see. Just to see it in person, more just to be there and see it on that level he comes in at.” Additionally, Benson headlining the event helps increase Page’s own visibility. “
It just puts more eyes on Bellator, for one. It puts more eyes on my division, too, which puts more eyes on me. And I’m always more dangerous when there’s more eyes on me, so it’s a good thing.”
A win over Holloway puts Page into a good position to fight on Bellator’s first event in the United Kingdom. Only two fights have been announced for the July 16th London card so far, a pair of rematches that pit
Kimbo Slice against
James Thompson, and
Josh Koscheck against
Paul Daley, but Bellator will likely want Page on the card as well since he’s a hot English prospect for the hometown London crowd. First he has to get past Holloway on Friday, though. An impressive win against Holloway and a possible high-profile fight in July would be right in step with Page’s goals. “
Short-term is just to destroy as many people until I get more and more people believing in the hands-down style. Long-term goal to be the face of this sport. I want to drag in all different types of people, old, young, women, men, everyone. I just want them to all enjoy what I enjoy doing.”
