Michael Page, who shared the Octagon with Ian Garry, believes the Irishman will never win an Ultimate Fighting Championship title.
Page (22-3) experienced a big step up in his opponents’ game when he faced Gary (15-0) in his sophomore year with the promotion last month at UFC 303. Despite being dominated on the ground by Gary, “MVP” fought bravely on the strikes and lost by unanimous decision. Not wanting to make excuses, Page claims he wasn’t his true self on fight day.
“I made a lot of mistakes,” Page said on The MMA Hour. “I don’t want to make excuses, but my preparation was a little bit off. And I always tried to stay focused on what I had to do, but I had some issues that I had to overcome in preparing for the fight… I just wasn’t myself.”
Garry had vowed to beat Page, but the former Bellator MMA star was clearly faster and landed the more damaging blows in the exchange of strikes. Page believes he could have done some things differently to earn the decision victory, but maintains he’s the type of guy who likes to finish fights.
“Ian said he didn’t want to go up against me because I’m this level of striker and I have this speed. I’ve always told everyone the same thing. It makes the match totally different when I’m bouncing around in front of you… There were some decisions I could have made during the match and maybe better decisions that would have cost the match, but that’s not like me. I prefer to go for the finish and I wanted to knock him out.”
Garry’s performance against Page left many unimpressed, including Dana White, who said the fight should have ended in a draw. Page also believes that Garry’s stand-up bout against a striker like himself means “the future” has no shot at beating an elite contender like Shavkat Rahmonov or champion Leon Edwards.
“not at all, [Garry will never be champion]Because if we get a decent striker, Leon
[Edwards] If he is going to kill you anyway, Shafqat [Rakhmonov]
Either way, he’s going to kill you. There are some guys he can’t beat.”
