Michael 'Venom' Page prepares to keep carving out a path at 185 pounds by facing a former UFC middleweight title challenger in the coming weeks and a former welterweight adversary of MVP's has weighed in on that bout. Logan Storley is preparing to face Thad Jean for the welterweight tournament title in the PFL Smart Cage on August 1st and appeared on Bowks Talking Bouts to cover several subjects ahead of this high stakes fight.
While the credentialed amateur wrestler has a chance to add a PFL title distinction to his resume, Storley is no stranger to MMA gold and that came at the expense of Page. Storley would defeat MVP by split decision at Bellator 281 in May 2022 to capture the promotion's interim welterweight strap. When touching upon his personal history with Page and also offering up his thoughts on MVP's looming bout with Jared Cannonier at UFC 319 on August 16th, Storley said,
"Yeah, obviously a big fight in the UK there when I fought him for the belt. I went out there and did something that no one has ever been able to do to him is take him down really and control him, especially for five rounds. We've seen him since he got into the UFC is how hard he is to navigate on the feet. No one's really stayed on the feet with him. So Cannonier is big, but Cannonier is nowhere near as fast as MVP. So it'll be really interesting, I guess, how it all plays out. But MVP's speed and distance control, it's a different level."
Michael 'Venom' Page stills sees unfinished business at welterweight
Michael 'Venom' Page is getting in some middleweight matchups as of late but he is not totally turning his back on 170 pounds as of yet. This was expressed by Page ahead of his fight earlier this year that saw him jump up to middleweight and hand surging prospect Shara Magomedov his first ever pro mixed martial arts defeat.
Leading into that February clash with Shara 'Bullet', MVP got across this point during an interview with MMA Junkie when Michael 'Venom' Page quipped [via Newsweek],
"If there is another opportunity at middleweight that looks good, looks juicy, looks tasty, 100 percent I'll be there to do it again. For me, timing-wise, going to middleweight, knowing I had to go through Christmas and everything, it helped. It helped a lot. It meant I could enjoy my Christmas a lot more."
"I've still got a lot of business that I want to handle at welterweight. So for me, this is a one-off, exciting fight at that weight. Maybe in the future you see me there but for now, I still find it comfortable to get to welterweight, and I've still got people I'd love to fight."