Leon
Edwards doubts Michael
Page will challenge for a title in the
Ultimate Fighting Championship.
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Page (22-3) made his Octagon debut at UFC 299 this past March,
scoring a unanimous decision win over Kevin
Holland. “MVP” most recently suffered a unanimous decision loss
against Ian Garry in
his sophomore promotional outing at UFC 303 last month.
Meanwhile, Edwards (22-3) will defend his welterweight title
against Belal
Muhammad at
UFC 304 in Manchester, England, this weekend. Page recently
said that a potential clash with fellow Brit Edwards in the future
would be a massive fight in the United Kingdom.
While “Rocky” admits that a fight against Page would indeed be big
in the UK, he doubts the former Bellator
MMA star rises up the ranks to cross paths with him. Edwards
believes Page could have made his way to title contention if he had
beaten Garry and followed it up with a win over an elite contender
like Shavkat
Rakhmonov. However, Edwards believes the now 37-year-old was a
little too late in making the switch from Bellator to the UFC.
Judging by Page’s performance against Garry, Edwards doubts “MVP”
can hold his own against other top contenders.
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“Let’s say he did go out there, battered Ian, probably one more,
beat Shavkat, then that would be massive in the UK,” Edwards said
at UFC 304 media day. “But I feel like he’s left it too late to
make the move over to the UFC. I wish he did it a little bit
earlier. Does he make it to title contender? I don’t know. There’s
a lot of top guys in the division. Ian is not a great wrestler; Ian
outgrappled you. Ian ain’t strong, Ian outgrappled you. So, I don’t
know.”
While Edwards agrees that a matchup against Page would be historic
for the region, he believes it’ll only blow up only if “MVP” earns
his shot. According to “Rocky,” plotting a massive matchup is all
talk until one has made a legitimate case for themselves to deserve
it.
“Let’s say he does go out there and beat these guys that meant to
be next, then obviously it’ll be one of the biggest fights in UFC
history. But you’ve to put the work in to get there. You can’t just
say, ‘If I was fuc*ing fighting Mike Tyson.’ It doesn’t matter, you
have to actually go out there, win the fights, get yourself in a
position where you can fight for the title, then this fight will be
massive.”