Michael ‘Venom’ Page Has ‘Given Up’ on Ever Fighting Paul Daley

It appears a long awaited showdown between a pair of British knockout artists is all but dead in the water.

For years, highly touted prospect Michael ‘Venom’ Page has been rumored for a fight against veteran heavy-hitter Paul Daley, but somehow the matchup never actually came together.

More recently, Daley has started to look towards moving on from his mixed martial arts career with his Bellator MMA contract nearing its end. Meanwhile, Page is more fired up than ever before to step back into MMA after taking a break last year to kick off his boxing career but by all accounts he’s moved on from ever fighting Daley.

With Bellator 200 taking place in London next weekend, it seemed that a Page vs. Daley matchup made perfect sense but the fight didn’t happen. Now Page has completely moved on from pursuing the fight any longer with Daley all but done with MMA.

“Me personally, I’ve given up on it,” Page said on Thursday ahead of his fight against David Rickels at Bellator 200. “I genuinely don’t care. It’s a shame in terms of how big that fight could have been. Outside of the actual history between us, it would have been a big fight anyway and just good for the U.K. MMA scene but I’ve seriously just given up.

“I don’t care anymore.”

The only thing that Page is happy to see regarding the non-existent fight with Daley is exoneration that he can no longer be blamed for the pairing never actually happening.

Page says it’s clear by now that Daley is the reason that fight never took place and now he’s focused on bigger objectives in his career than chasing an opponent he claims wants nothing to do with him.

“I’m just glad cause at the beginning it was like a he said/she said type situation but now you understand and I think everybody understands, it’s not me turning down this fight,” Page said. “I’ve been wanting this fight for a long time, even when we was amicable. I was actually OK and said it was OK. So at least that’s been brought to light.

“It’s a shame that we’re going to be missing it this weekend, but it is what it is. So the focus for me is on my career and pushing forward and fighting other big names.”