Michael 'Venom' Page is set to make his return at UFC London, but he's been clear that he isn't thrilled about the fight he's been given.
Page has also made it clear he's not happy with certain aspects of the job, especially when it comes to how fighters are paid. He hasn't held back in sharing what he sees as flaws in how things are run at the top level of MMA.
He's since raised questions about how things operate within the organisation, particularly after being matched up against Sam Patterson — a fight that didn't exactly excite him.
Patterson isn't an established name yet. And the two have even trained together in recent years, adding another layer of discomfort to this booking.
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Michael 'Venom' Page understands that even though he and Sam Patterson have trained together recently, there are still parts of their games that remain unseen to each other.
He wonders if part of his frustration comes from ranked fighters being hesitant to face him because of how unpredictable he is.
'MVP' believes his unpredictability will work in his favour against Patterson, who might struggle to fill in the gaps he didn't see during their training sessions.
"There's still aspects of me that he hasn't seen and we're familiar, and I'm sure it's the same thing on his part," Page told Bloody Elbow. "But, it's definitely more dangerous on my side simply because of the style that I bring.
"It's very hard for you to try to figure out the grey areas whereas it's probably slightly easier for me to figure out the grey areas that I may not have seen that he gave me when we sparred. But yeah, it's always difficult when you are familiar with somebody but it's definitely more difficult on his part."
Page isn't downplaying Patterson's ability; he just feels the timing of this matchup isn't right for where he's at in his career. He sees Patterson as a talented up-and-comer but doesn't think this was the right fight for him now.
"It's mistimed," Page said. "It's way too early. I feel like he'll [Patterson] get to that place and people are definitely going to hear more and more about him as his career goes on because he's super talented. I just feel like it's not the correct time."
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