This past weekend, Bellator 248 made history as the first major MMA event in France after it’s legalization earlier this year. One of the headliners for the promotion was the dynamic Michael “Venom” Page (18-1).
Page was set to take on the previously unbeaten Ross Houston (8-1, 1 NC) in the main event of Bellator 248. MVP was coming off of three consecutive knockout finishes, and he was looking for another statement win this past Saturday.
Page has been trying to get a rematch with Bellator‘s welterweight champion Douglas Lima. Lima knocked out Page back at Bellator 221 which is still MVP’s only professional loss. Given the magnitude of the event and Page’s popularity, a lot of eyes were on Bellator 248.
While there was very high expectations, the main event completely failed to deliver. The MMA community was expecting a back and forth war with one man eventually going down. Instead, what they got was a grinding decision for Michael Page. A flop of a main event for the promotion.
After the fight was over, Page made the claim that the Bellator mat was extremely slippery. For that reason, he couldn’t execute his game plan. Meanwhile, Scott Coker came out and said that he believed MVP’s off night was due to the fact that he’s been inactive this year.
What really happened at Bellator 248
I don’t want to come across as a hater, but I find the slippery surface excuse to be a little far fetched. There were no complaints from other fighters when it came to the Bellator fighting surface on Saturday night. Everyone else seemed to perform just fine.
It also certainly didn’t look like Page was having trouble keeping his footing. However, just because he didn’t visibly slip a ton doesn’t mean he didn’t feel stable. He very well might have felt that the mat wasn’t sturdy enough for his flashy techniques.
However, I believe that Bellator President Scott Coker was more on point with his assessment. To me, Page just appeared to be a little off overall. It looked like his timing wasn’t completely there and he just didn’t seem comfortable inside the cage.
I think the fact that Houston was a very dangerous opponent didn’t help things. I think the fact that Page didn’t feel comfortable, he was facing a dangerous opponent, and the fact that it was his first fight of 2020 led to the lackluster Bellator 248 performance.
No matter how you slice it, the main event really failed the promotion in a big way. Bellator had the chance to make a big statement being the first to host an event in France, but the promotion failed to deliver an entertaining main event.