It’s difficult enough to be successful in life. To be original is about as close to impossible as you can get without Tom Cruise and some suspension wire.
In fact, if you want to be both, that tends to require some illusion or at least misdirection. You need more than skill; you need a little pixie dust.
Michael Page might have that rare ability to fill both buckets. He hasn’t yet proved he can overcome top competition, but he might have the tools to get there.
“I think creativity is one of the most important things, to me, in fighting,” Page said in an interview with Bleacher Report. “I want to let people know who I am. I want people to enjoy what I do. To me, everything is about expression, about not being bound by fear of losing or your opponent.”
Page, 27, is 5-0 in his young MMA career. But the welterweight has five stoppage wins, all in the first round, with three by knockout. But that still doesn’t do it. One of his knockouts came by tornado kick. Another one happened in 10 seconds.
After winning just about everything there is to win as an amateur kickboxer in his native England and beyond, Page tried MMA. The talent was there. So were the physical tools—he stands 6’3” with a 77-inch reach and, according to him, doesn’t have to cut much weight from his default mass of 84 kilograms to reach the welterweight limit.
But the Michael Page precedent isn’t entirely set. Sure, there are the obvious antecedents like Anderson Silva and Anthony Pettis. Page isn’t as accomplished as those guys, but his MMA striking, in its own context, might be even more tornadic than the others. So might his in-cage persona, with the way he lowers his hands and even extends his neck, almost begging the other fighter to take a swing. And then the next instant, the other guy is flat on his back. He doesn’t mind doing the Ali shuffle or donning a pair of shades as he makes his way to the cage.
That sort of thing gets you noticed, but it will earn you some detractors, too. Page understands that, and he recognizes that getting noticed is part of the deal. Far more soft-spoken in interviews than he is inside a cage, Page notes that his fights are a creative extension of his personality, not the personality itself.
“A lot of people think I’m disrespectful because of my fighting style,” Page said. “But I was raised on martial arts. I bow when I walk into the class, and I bow when I’m leaving class. Both of my parents were in that world, pushing me forward.”
That sense of creativity, though, goes beyond just a flashy interview or a bit of flamboyant footwork. You can see it in the fighting style, which is unabashedly based in his parents’ kung fu but is just so, well, unorthodox that it can’t be explained by a single influence.
Nor should it be. Page admits that he’ll watch Jackie Chan or other action movies, see a certain move and “my brain will just start working.” Kids are another source of his unorthodoxy.
“I love watching the juniors fight,” he said. “With the younger ones, there are no guidelines. They will try anything. But [older fighters] are safer, less creative. A certain move might be technically wrong, but maybe I can try it. Maybe it will work.”
But Page also is mindful of fans. He seems cognizant that some won’t consider him more than a flashy kickboxer until he takes on and beats a top wrestler. He seems aware that people don’t like him. Many fighters are quick to shrug such things off, assert that public opinion doesn’t worry them or retaliate against critics with a list of credentials. Page does neither, preferring to take a rather strange angle on the answer.
“Even the supporters, when they come up and say they know you’re going to win the fight, that adds pressure. What people say is powerful,” he said. “They don’t even realize they’re doing it sometimes; they’re just trying to support you. But it does add pressure. I just have to worry about myself. That helps.”
On Friday at Bellator 128, Page will take that dervish striking game and try to knock out another obstacle: Nah-Shon Burrell, a power puncher with brief stints in the UFC and Strikeforce. Page may be facing some ring rust, after he only fought twice in 2013 and once so far in 2014. An MCL injury was to blame for his 2013 absence. But he’s ready to go do it, and he wants to move forward.
“I don’t think I have too much more to prove to anybody,” Page said. “I just have to go and do me.”
The Beaten Path is a series at Bleacher Report highlighting intriguing prospects in MMA. For the previous interview in the series, click here. All quotes obtained firsthand. Scott Harris covers MMA and other topics for Bleacher Report and other places. Follow him on Twitter if you feel so inclined.
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