Michael Venom Page | Bellator 258 Countdown | Energized Show

Summary

What is up and welcome to the latest Energized Show! On this episode we're joined by MVP ahead of his fight this Friday on Bellator 258. We discuss Bellator, Douglas Lima & His title ambitions. Check it out, enjoy, subscribe for more and as always Stay Energized! Follow us on…

Transcript (youtube_captions)

Kind: captions Language: en [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] okay what's going on guys and welcome to a brand new episode of energized ross introduced a guest man we have live from the mohican salon mr michael venom paige mvp hey why are you doing he's in there good man i'm good good energy good energy so i'm feeling good we only ever bring the best for you my friends we only ever bring the best for you how is life how how is the moji can someone treating you and how much forward are you looking to this weekend yeah number eight son is a very lovely um very lovely place i've been here multiple times um it feels like a a second a home away from home because again i've fought here so many so many times uh very very welcoming it's gonna be a shame that there's not a crowd uh you know to be there again this time but um hopefully we get back to normal ways uh soon and i'm yeah i'm looking forward to just getting back in there massively looking forward to i've been working hard in the gym and uh yeah i've got some stuff to show nice nice we're always looking forward to a few new tricks from mvp especially or this t-shirt where like it's not actually a pokeball but it looks like pokeballs it does it does yes i was like i was like i was like that's that's my little homage to mr mvp but uh michael how are you finding them this almost lack of activity from bellator this is their you know they only came back in april now i know you obviously fought in october but they took a very long time to come back and start off 2021 how was that for you i'm sure you probably wanted to get another fight in earlier on the year yeah now to be fair it was it's for me it's very disappointing um obviously to see uh you know the likes of ufc they they got even throughout they just kept uh bending and flexing whatever was whatever was going on they kept finding a way to make it happen um obviously we've all gone everyone's going for the same struggle but i just feel like they you know they could have done a bit more one if not to do it early to start earlier but at least at the beginning of this year to actually just get going a lot quicker than they they have um obviously great announcements with the showtime uh and with the bbc iplayer so it's it's good so there's obviously been working but i just feel like they could have got we could have got back to fighting aways a lot a lot sooner but but we're here now and i hopefully they they you know they get they get to go in uh real fast um michael do you see this as a number one contender for you for for yourself even though you probably consider yourself the number one contender uh i was gonna announce it as the number two rank bellator welterweight but uh i didn't want to start on a sour note yeah obviously this new ranking system is it's interesting from yeah it's always there's always going to be reasons to um kind of uh like it or dislike it because even in the the ufc ranking systems some some of the stuff i look at it doesn't really make sense to me so um this is it's it's based on opinion so is what it is um but it it's still quite uninteresting it's still i think it's still quite a good addition to bellator though i definitely do think it helps the casual fans if you're if you're watching and you've never seen someone before and they have a number next to the name you're like oh well that guy must be good so so i definitely do think it does help the casual fans and you're right even the ufc don't get it right sometimes with their rankings i was looking them there recently and cowboy really entered the lightweight rankings at 15 and number one he hasn't fought his last three fights at lightweight and i don't think he's worn in the last like three or four years i know i love scale boy but i don't know what that's doing in there yeah yeah and that's my point and there's multiple with that we actually went through actually with a friend of mine which we sat down going for all the ufc ranking system just just to kind of compare and there's a lot of things in there that they're that are arguable that don't quite make sense but um yeah it's just it's just good to have i think as you say for the casual fans i think it's massive um just people having numbers to it you can just kind of get into it quite quickly and figure out who's who and then obviously the bbc deal was massive being from the uk what did you make of that i think that's a that's a great deal my only again i've got a few graphs money gripe is obviously we've partnered over the years of me being embedded we partnered with quite a few different uh channels and it's always exciting i just hope this one there's for whatever reasons the others are kind of falling through i hope this one actually you know we stay this one out because i think bbc iplayer is a great place it's even even for me when i'm watching some of the the bellator shows now having it there immediately just makes it easier i i hated the fact that you had to you know for the prelims i have to go here and then for this i have to go over there and this it just it makes it so much easier it's all in one place it makes it 10 times easier to just kind of to tune in i think it's and that's me as a being a fighter actually looking for fights so if i was a casual fan i probably would have switched off after i've had to figure out to go somewhere else yeah especially i think barry in ireland won the shows was it was on what we have virgin media sports over here then you went to channel five and then you went to sky sports and it was all the one card i was like and i'll start off with youtube as well the premiums were on youtube it was like yeah yeah so it's just it's just it was just too i find it a bit too messy so it looks it feels a lot cleaner at the moment and hopefully we can we can stay with that yeah and michael like obviously you're coming off a four or five win streak and then like uh as massive mma fans we were myself i'm not too sure about euros but we were like i was really looking forward to seeing you go back in and take on lima again like and um for that to like fall off did like are you are you planning on putting on an absolute show this friday or like what's what's going through your head or have you been told it the winner of this you're definitely getting the title shot next now that's the thing i'm not sure how how they how they're doing things at the moment um i genuinely believe um lima's not in any rush to get back and have have this fight uh i feel like he understood the dangers at the time uh experienced that obviously came out great on top and doesn't really want to enter that uh that quickly you know and there's there's been a lot of excuses on that side and even now i i genuinely feel like if you know touchwood all goes well this weekend i'm definitely in line to you know go back for the title but if he wins i can i have a feeling he's gonna drag it out he's gonna be like oh no i've just fought now uh you know i need i need five months off and i'm not gonna i'm not waiting for that so uh i'd happily you know fight here fight again in a couple of months fight again in a couple of months and then you know either way i'm gonna get him i don't that's that's without a doubt yeah it's definitely a bit of a strange one that um from in terms of a promotional point of view if olim's got coke or i'm sitting there going you don't want to actually create any extra barriers to the biggest welterweight fight possible which is you versus lima amazon very good fighter undefeated you know i mean not taking nothing away from but like if you're trying to you know build a big fight and get the most always on impossible it's lima versus mvp yes exactly strongly argue that is the most anticipated fight in bellator let alone the rematch i mean like you're two of the biggest stars bellator have and i find it very strange that they're actually like in any way avoiding making this matchup yeah i i find it the same i genuinely say my i feel like i'm a bit underestimated amongst uh the bellator community um uh and i'm i'm talking the staffing as well uh they i don't know i don't know what i don't wanna speculate too much but yeah as you it seems very obvious to to make this match happen uh and build it up and run it back again but like i said i'm just i've kind of kind of grown tired of having to keep asking for this fight and nothing really common of it so i'm like i said i'm just going to go out there keep entertaining keep putting on the show keep winning fights and again he will not be able to avoid it for too much longer yeah you're one of the most entertaining people in there like there's always some sort of gimmick at the end whether it be the pokeball or whether it would be like uh i remember the tourism it's always a show and then obviously as because we do an mma show we want to promote the biggest fights and and for people that haven't seen your fight like they have to see a fight because like there's something totally different about you there's a serious star power so like you against lima hopefully next is at some stage i'm like i remember we had we were talking to you on the show at a foycon a cork last year and like this just seems to be a reoccurring team like it's like douglas lamont took the sleeve of douglas you seem to not be able to get away from it you know yeah yeah i think if you were like if someone asked you like describe my venom page as a fight style i'd like it's like anderson silva-esque like michael jackson dance moves chloe i like it i like it yeah oh absolutely michael can i ask you how many points you have left on your bell tour deal uh i believe i got four more and would you like to ideally almost run them off this year by the end of the year have four ton industry yeah well obviously like 2019 i had a uh five fights in that that year um i was hoping to just kind of continue that kind of at that pace just every time i'm for me i was pushing for fights every time i finish a fight i was like look i wanna what's the next show that i can get on um obviously because of my star i'm fortunate enough to not be taking too much damage during fights even when i've had like a 15 15 minute fight i don't get hit too much uh the most has happened is is a grappling fight um so i'm always fresh to go straight back in obviously you know better to you know want time to promote and so on and so forth but i guess the the only positive this is why i was kind of frustrated with them not starting back the positive of this whole colvid period is they didn't have to push for like selling tickets it's all you know people are gonna have to watch it from home because obviously they're not gonna they're not gonna have that attendance so it made it easier to kind of just run shows back to back and just keep going uh obviously there's obviously a lot more going on behind the scenes but i'm not sure but just in terms of ticket sales we don't have to worry about that anymore um even with this fight like they announced this fight like three weeks out which i find crazy but if you're willing to do uh if you're willing to do that that means moving forward i should be able to jump from month to month just keep going as long as i'm fresh would you be even willing to do a cash match my oven just go that's fine i'll stay in the mall he can saw him for another two weeks and i'll see you in two weeks listen i i i would live here if they were going to give me that fight i'm going to give you like months like back-to-back fights every month i would stay here 100 and that's the thing when you when you are sometimes now obviously i've never been a fighter and i've never seen it but like sometimes you see a fighter queen and they win in the first minute and i'm like why is that going not looking for another paycheck in a month's time you know what i mean why do i go in and make the bread or what does it make hey when the sun shines you know what i mean more to it there is more to it i i understand that they want to kind of build things up but like i said recently they don't seem to be that like fussed about doing that so yeah as you say fighters should be a lot a lot more hungry is there is there any talk that like um you could potentially i'm just looking at some of the fights here that are lined up do you think that you could potentially be fighting next in london with like like with fans back is that is that something they might be actually contemplating because obviously you against lima with no one there isn't really what they want to do you know yeah yeah yeah now yeah there's there's there has been i've spoken to a couple of people there has been talks but london's uh as you guys know in ireland it seems to be worse london has been frustrating um for things like this and it's we're slowly getting back there now so there is hope but then they're already talking about it just it depends on just the figures and so on and so forth so we'll we'll see we'll see hopefully yes things are you know especially you know the next few months are back to where people can actually come to to different shows um they i think in barcelona they had a successful um i think it was a concert or something where no there was no there was no no trace of it uh the covey found afterwards and there's been quite a few other uh places that other countries are starting to open up and and and having success rates with with mass crowds so yeah i'm i'm hopeful yeah well the way i look at it is ufc just went to florida and they're going to thousands yeah they're going to they're going to texas and they're going to sell out in texas and then they're going over to vegas and the mcgregor fight's going to be a sellout as well so like i don't understand why better dogs just go right after we've done these few and the mohican zones signed off we'll just go to those places and we can sell out the tickets and we can sell out the arenas and you know what i would be against going to the exact same arena you know the leo ready to rock and put the shows on the only thing i do know is um the a lot of you the ufc always uh sorry i just had a call coming sorry uh did a does a non-compete clause for a lot of their stuff um so if they're because i remember that happening in the o2 at one point and we would they bellator wasn't even allowed to announce that they're gonna be there i think like 90 days after ufc had been there which is a long time if you're you know you're trying to promote you know a show so yeah i i understand this is why i think they try to steer away from arenas that ufc has already been being been in but i still believe there's there are loads more places that they can go to where they can actually draw a crowd um it just feels like they're just i don't know it feels lazy to me um and it's kind of a bit too relaxed with me and i'm just i'm i'm well myself and i'm sure a lot of other fighters are just eager to just get back get back to some kind of normality yeah and i suppose you being the type of fighter you are you're also like a showman so like you probably buzz off that arena and feel you know i mean like we were at bellator 200. and uh that's where david rickles like quit he basically look did he actually tap the canvas or did you just tell the wrath and all for nothing he's that he's out yeah he's like it's like he was like it wasn't the strength i couldn't blame him well neither can i but it was definitely one of the strangest finishes to a fight ever where you know he wasn't um you know actually tk whatever he just went ref that's it thanks thanks very much about nothing but um yeah like you're putting on a shower with the fans another every time you're there and like i'd easily put you in the top five pound per pound like most c fighters especially you're you're in the uh in the cage antics are as good as anything and i was only talking to barry there the other day about this healthy talk with uh richie boiler that's actually one thing that leads me on to and what's the story of you and them big dan murdo these days is that beef squashed or does he not lay referee mvp fights yeah um uh he he came and spoke to me we had a conversation quite soon after uh like a few months after i was at another show and he came sat down we had a conversation no problems no issues at all um he kind of explained his side i explained my side and we kind of just came to an understanding it's cool um they i think they've said that they don't want him to ref my fights and i personally believe i think there will just be too much pressure on him if he wants to ref my fight so now he could potentially go be too biased for me and then people are going to be like it's because of what happened or he goes too hard the other way and then people are like oh he still you know he's still being like you know he still hates michael so it's just easier to history great refs to just kind of just leave it as you know there's no need for us to kind of cross paths but it may happen again i have no issue with it i think he's a great ref um i just think sometimes and it's been shown in the past that he could he can let his personal opinions kind of get involved in his uh refereeing but i think in general he's an amazing ref michael in your mixed martial arts career where has been where has been the favorite place you've fought like obviously you've been like paris and japan and mumbai and obviously dublin and london but uh where was the best place you've actually fought um it's all the place that i've kind of said that i wanted to go to so dublin for me were just just outrageous because it just it sounds it sounds like there's 500 000 people there is the the the kind of as we just spoke about i kind of live off that kind of those kind of energies um and japan it was weird in the opposite opposite way there's more people there it's pin drop you can hear a pin drop in there it's silent but there was just a weird aura and energy in that just even when i walked in earlier when there was nobody there there's the energy in that place it it seriously just i don't know what it i can't even explain what it was it wasn't fade or on that card as well so yeah yeah that's that seems like a place yeah you have a movie just to think about all the people that fought over there and stuff it was just there was just like a fight fighting energy just in that in that whole place um and which was quite lifting like it was great and the crowd the crowd there and the fans are are also amazing i think the it's always nice to fight at home um but i've i've for years been saying i feel like the english struggle to support their own in the same way like this is why i was so i love going to ireland even when i'm watching them support somebody else it's just i just love to i just love to see that that really they are true fans of the sport they really loved it um but over um in england it's like yeah there's too much politics going on as well as so uh yeah definitely uh it's always great to fight at home because of just because of family and friends yeah but ireland and japan right now that are the top two from me do you know what they say michael when one of us goes to war we all go to work and i i see it i definitely see that man and that's what i'm saying i i really wish i we like the my home fans had that same kind of like attitude and just really i think it would help with it with their own athletes well i'll tell you what uh michael next time you're coming and fighting in dublin give us a heads up and we'll pick out a brilliant irish walk-out song for you man yeah well let's just look at the cards this week this friday as well like there is some pretty good fights in it as well why aren't you just taking on sergio unfortunately anthony johnson was meant to fight you well romero but that's why it's been cancelled and jose gustos after stepping in and then uh petrichi pitbull is fighting peter cready as well and then obviously you'll find derek anderson in the main card and if we just look at the the main event for the bantamweight title michael who do you fancy for this one to be to walk out as a champ it's it's a tough one you know i think they're both they're both uh complete fighters it's i think it's editing it's a it's actually a good um it's a good matchup that one there's for me is a tricky one this is quite obvious to kind of go yeah no it's a tricky one it's a tricky one i i think i was talking to gonna go for one arch letter and i think one thing that dual separation is i think one architect will be stronger and i think pettis has been slightly bullied in the grapple game by someone who's a bit top heavy i think one large letter top heavy might be slightly uh better in that uh arena and then shout out as well to norbert on his really sexy hair [Laughter] for this one because because obviously we'll let michael sit in the fence for this one ross you're going for one i'm gonna go for surgery on this uh anthony rumble johnson is taking on jose gusto in the headway grand prix um who do you expect will win the whole heavyweight grand prix oh the whole uh um i i i think it's going to be between um uh ryan bader again and um obviously the our current champion because and it's going to i think it's going to go down to that that the same fight and i think ryan bader will have to have to adjust but um yeah um what's the style that he does again i just forgot nemkov samba it seems to be way more popular now and and you can see how effective it is as well um he's got great kicks he's solid that last fight with um phil davis as well i thought phil davis was gonna do a bit was gonna attack the wrestling a little bit more and he seemed he seemed to be i don't know just second guessing himself but usually when fighters do that that means there's there was a worry about something which means nemkov is has kind of just like disrupted his best attribute in some way shape or form so whether it be he's just really strong or he's got you know he's got good throws himself he got thrown at one time and in their in their first fight i think he's just kind of shaking him a little bit because i'm surprised he didn't you know try to go for more takedowns but it just shows that the name covers is a great he's a great champion and he right now it's still i think he he favors it definitely yeah i'm going to agree with that as well rashford who you fancy you know oh i've always had corey anderson from the start more though because the guy he was fighting the first round no one knew who he was no offense to him and i thought like i wasn't going to call it give me foot but i thought he actually almost had like the least damaged path to the toilet if that makes sense i knew them and phil dave was probably going to go the distance and then he was going to fight rumble or yo romero and like yeah people aren't the same after they fight those two guys regardless the result you know people thought yo romero would still not be the same after they've even if they win and so i was like oh like that's a lot of damage on that side as opposed to i was sort of thought i actually thought machida was going to be able to be better so i thought anderson was going to be able to take machita down almost uh quite early on and he'd almost get to the final do you remember roy nelson in the ultimate fight or the heavyweights and he just put over the crucifix position and then just like lay him until he got to the foil i was a bit like i was a bit like he might get foil with the least amount of damage therefore yeah yeah yeah corey anderson brought out i do think he's criminally underrated so as a lawyer mr ground and pound yeah you better believe it and then obviously all three of us are picking peter cready but then the last question michael is how do how does it go down michael page versus derrick anderson this friday you know um for me um i feel i feel different i don't know what why there's this this camp has been a great camp and a frustrating camp just because of personal life there's a lot that's been happening obviously as for everybody but um yeah i feel like i'm gonna channel that in this i'm looking to just take it to him quite early uh i feel just i've been feeling really slick and training really powerful uh really strong and he's gonna feel all of that um and as you know i entertain as well so i'm just going to put on a show but i'm looking to to really my job is to get him out of the way and then and then just be ready for whatever's you know whatever the opportunities are there next obviously michael he's moved up from lightweight recently and he's had a bit of success there out well do i do you think he'll have a big size advantage against him well i i'm i tend to be a lot taller than most anyway uh in in in a division but one thing i've always said is my my body shape is nowhere near like the kind of shape of a lot of these guys a lot of guys are a lot thicker than myself um i'm just kind of have that a bit more round figure and like it makes me means they're a lot stronger in certain positions um but my yeah my reach has always been something that i've i've used well and my distance and my distance control i use well so regardless of of that i'm definitely going to have a height advantage um reach advantage but um he's a very well well-versed and well-rounded mma fighter so i i have to be careful like i have to be careful of anybody you know for me he's the best person in the world when i'm standing in front of him and i've got to treat him as such accordingly and then and and have all my tools sharpened and ready to to take him out absolutely man absolutely he i feel like he's gonna feel a bit of venom in this fight well my my pick is mvp by ko every time you vote that's nearly always my pick so uh that's that's where i'm going yeah what about you uh michael like you know you're we're team team paige when it comes to you that uh michael that obviously would like wraps up everything and we do thank you very much for coming on obviously we've had you on a few times and shout out to luke as well and norbert but um yeah is there is there anything else you want to say before we wrap things up michael um you know what uh there's only only one thing is that just for me mentally in terms of what i've gone through for the last couple of years i've realized how because i i usually try to stay away from politics and stuff completely but i've kind of just realized how important um being involved in some way shape or form would actually stay in your opinion in politics is um that's why i've actually gotten involved with a political party called taking the initiative and i'm trying to just trying to work on the background we're doing loads of different loads of different projects so i just want to give them a shout out to taking the initiative and just to everybody and that if they had a kind of similar mindset as myself in terms of as we've just been kind of complaining about in terms of our government and what they do and how slow they are we we can have a lot more to a lot more involvement instead of just kind of complaining about the decisions these guys make we kind of let them get away with way too much in my opinion and i've kind of realized that over these last couple of years so i'm like yeah no let's let's create our own army the same way you guys do when you're supporting fighters and actually do something about it and stop these guys for me just taking absolute liberties of our lives yeah well i would say uh definitely in the sport world obviously what marks rashford and then what like the protests from the european super league and the football you mean and people power has definitely been shown to be a lot more effective there these days so look uh i think that's absolutely brilliant that you're using your status on your name recognition to you know instill your beliefs out there and then also to try and do right by your people you know i mean and i think that's very very important and paddy hooligan over here is a big political figure now uh over here and he's doing something similar and he's doing great things he's actually a local counselor so he's actually was actually elected over in the tala in his hometown so uh amazing amazing i'd love to see that i think it's absolutely great and it's it's a bit of a it's a bit of a funny one i always think with sports stars because i mean some people just want to be the sports fair and they don't get involved in politics and that's completely fine as well you don't have to yeah but if you do have your views and you do feel like you can use your platform to voice them and you can help people all the more power to you definitely definitely thank you man exactly exactly okay so michael thanks bill for coming on make sure to not miss michael venom page performing this friday on bellator 258 friday may 7th in the morning so there we go thanks for coming on if you're new make sure to like make sure to share make sure to subscribe and as always stay energized you