Michael Page: ‘Paul Daley Doesn’t Want To Fight Me… He’s All Over The Place’
Paul Daley stated on his Facebook page last evening that he has a fight contract in front of him to fight Michael ‘Venom’ Page in summer, but according to Page he’s yet to hear anything about the fight.
Speaking backstage to MMANytt.com last evening, Page gave his reaction to Daley’s latest Facebook post and explained that he’d yet to hear anything from Bellator about the potential bout.
“No [I don’t know anything about the proposed fight], I think Paul Daley is in his own world,” Page said. “He says whatever he wants to say because one minute he wants to fight me and he calls me out, then straight afterwards he doesn’t want to fight me, then he calls me out again and then fights someone else, he doesn’t know what he wants.
“I personally believe he doesn’t want to fight me and I’m ok with that. I genuinely don’t care.”
Page than outlined the start of the feud and why he thinks Daley has an issue with him. The London Shootfighters man thinks it’s purely down to jealousy and what he’s accomplished in the sport in the short time he’s been around.
“From the beginning, he said something that I thought was disrespectful and the best way two fighters can settle it without unnecessary exchanges outside, we can just settle it inside the cage. That’s where it started and he’s gone back and forth ever since and for me, just based on the stuff that’s come to pass, I just genuinely think he’s been jealous of my success in the time that I’ve been in the sport.
“He keeps going on about how he’s been fighting here there and training in these gyms and it’s just two different paths, but he sees it as more respect and this and that. I think even when we were friendly he still had that in the back of his head and it’s just coming out now.”
While the fight hasn’t been put on the table to him yet, Page says if it materializes he won’t hesitate to sign the contract. If it takes place, it could well be the biggest domestic fight in UK MMA history and it would settle one of the longest running feuds in British mixed martial arts.
“Like I’ve said, if he actually decides to sign a fight, then I’m ok to fight anytime,” Page said. “I’ve been ok to fight for a long time and I’ve not hidden. It’s not me that’s been going back and forth. He even had a conversation with Ariel Helwani and even in that conversation at the beginning he was saying it wasn’t about the money, then at the end it was about the money. At the beginning it’s not about fighting me [and he was saying] he couldn’t make the dates Bellator were offering him to make [the fight], then at the end he’s like ‘I can fight any week, I want to fight every week.’ It’s just like, you’re all over the place and that was just in one 30-minute conversation.
“I can’t imagine how up and down he is in everyday life. For me, if the contract ends up in front of me I’m signing it immediately. He’s saying he’s got two contracts in front of him and has the potential [to sign them], mate, you don’t need to tell everybody, just sign them. You don’t need to announce it to the world. Just sign it and let Bellator do their job and promote the fight. It’s as simple as that.”
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