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The former Bellator star recently explained his reasoning for accepting fights at middleweight in the Ultimate Fighting Championship ahead of his Octagon return against Nursulton Ruziboev at UFC Paris.
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Michael Page explains why UFC welterweight title-shot tactics pushed him toward middleweight
Page is 4-1 in the UFC, with his lone defeat in the promotion coming against the last challenger for the 170-pound title, Ian Garry. However, odd bookings followed the loss to Garry, with the Englishman taking on middleweights Sharabutdin Magomedov and Jared Cannonier before dropping back down to welterweight to fight unranked compatriot Sam Patterson in a lackluster bout.
Page claims top-ranked welterweights would rather wait around for a title shot than fight him, prompting the move back up to 185 pounds.
“Everyone at welterweight is, I’m trying to be polite here,” Page said in a recent interview. “I feel like there’s too many people wasting time at welterweight at the moment. Too many people with entitlement issues… They believe that they should be the next in line. And so, they’re going to wait and this and that. I don’t have the patience for that.”
Page acknowledged that winning a championship remains the ultimate objective, but doesn’t believe fighters should be so calculated about which matchups to accept.
“Everyone’s goal is the belt, but there’s no need to be this tactical about it,” Page said. “And there’s like seven people being tactical about it. It’s annoying. So, I just said, I’ll go the tougher route and just move up a weight.”
This article first appeared at Recent News on Sherdog.com
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