Michael “Venom” Page extended his winning streak to four fights with a unanimous decision victory over Nursulton Ruziboev at UFC Paris on Saturday, but the victory left the welterweight contender frustrated with his own performance.
All four of Page’s consecutive wins have come by decision, and the 39-year-old believes his tendency to fight with too much precision is preventing him from delivering the kind of performances he knows he is capable of.
“To be fair, again, the frustrating thing is I feel great, which sometimes means I haven't done enough, and the results show that I haven't done enough,” Page told the UFC news team after the fight. “I probably need to push myself a little bit more, take a few more risks. Sometimes I just want it to be too clean, too, you know, too just precise. So I just know to myself, I know there's more.”
Page said the issue has become particularly noticeable once he steps inside the Octagon.
“And it's frustrating because as I get to there, when I get to the cage, sometimes I feel like I'm holding back,” he said. “And I want to give more. You know, like I was saying in there, the fans deserve more. The UFC deserves more. I know I can give more. I feel like I'm almost there. It's exactly the same as I thought it would be.”
Ruziboev, meanwhile, quickly looked to take the fight away from Page's preferred range, attempting a takedown early rather than engaging in an extended striking battle.
“Again, the first thing he does is go for a takedown. He's like, I don't want to deal with this,” Page said. “I get all this talk out here of, ‘Yeah, I'm going to do this. I'm going to stand with him.’ No one, there's not one person in the world that can stand with me.”
While Page remains confident in his striking superiority, he acknowledged that opponents have found a different way to neutralize him: surviving.
“But then again, there's too many people that can survive with me. That's the problem,” Page said. “That's what I need to change. My output needs to change. I need to, like I said, take a few more risks. Not just a few more, a lot more risks.”
Page also believes he missed opportunities to impose more damage after successfully getting back to his feet following Ruziboev's takedown attempts.
“And I feel, you know, I got up from him taking me down, so I should have just done more,” he said. “Because the most he was going to do was take me down again, and then I'd get back up.”
The victory keeps Page moving forward in the UFC welterweight division, but his post-fight comments suggest he is looking beyond simply adding another win to his record. After four straight decisions, Page believes taking greater risks and increasing his offensive output could be the key to unlocking another level of his game.
