It’s widely known by this point in time that Paul Daley and Michael “Venom” Page got into a brief scuffle after Daley’s loss to Rory MacDonald at Bellator 179.
Now that cooler heads have prevailed, the man known as MVP says he has lost all respect for Daley.
“I kind of expected it,” Page explained on The MMA Hour. “Because I felt he went in there knowing that if he wins the fight, he would automatically call out Douglas Lima, going for the belt, and if he lost, which he did, he would call me out. So, I think that was just very tactical. But I have to say, I’m extremely disappointed and I’ve lost all respect for Paul Daley. And it’s not because of him calling me out. The main reason was his mom was in the crowd, distressed and angry after the incident. And obviously, knowing that your family is there, you have to be careful, you have to be professional about how you handle yourself. And I had to kind of explain and calm her down. We had a lovely conversation; although it was tense, I had to calm her down. It left her feeling a lot better afterward obviously, but I would never put my mother in that situation, having to defend my battles over something that I caused. So I have to say that I’ve lost a hell of a lot of respect for him.”
Bellator MMA President Scott Coker has stated that when the promotion returns to England, the main event may be Daley versus MVP.
Although things didn’t get to physical between the fighters, one of them believes it could have been much worse for the other.
“The first thing I was thinking of doing was hitting him straight away, and that’s purely out of self-defense,” Page said. “I’m not that way inclined, but the pure aggressive way he approaching with he and his training partner, or whoever that other idiot is, you can’t walk towards someone like that and not expect them to defend themselves. So, they charged towards me. Luckily it didn’t get to that point because my coach stepped in the way and pushed him back, but he could’ve caused a very big incident at that particular time. And like I said, he could’ve called me into the cage and I would’ve gladly walked in. There’s a way of doing it, and I think he did it the safe way.”
MVP was supposed to fight at Bellator 179 as well, but pulled out of the fight due to injury.
