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“MVP” will take on a former UFC fighter in Japan.
It’s been a busy year for Michael “Venom” Page, and he’ll have one more fight before the calendar flips to 2020.
The dynamic Bellator welterweight striker is set to face former UFC fighter Shinsho Anzai at Bellator Japan on December 28th (December 29th in Japan). It’ll be contested at a catchweight of 173 lbs, per Bellator officials.
Page (16-1) has fought four times in 2019, winning a very boring decision over Paul Daley, followed by a brutal KO loss to Douglas Lima in the Bellator welterweight grand prix semifinals. He’s since bounced back with finishes of Richard Kiely and late replacement Giovanni Melillo, who filled in for the injured Derek Anderson.
Anzai (11-3) had four appearances under the UFC banner, going 2-2 before he was released earlier this year. He lost his Octagon debut to Alberto Mina, won by injury TKO vs. Roger Zapata and bested Luke Jumeau on the scorecards, but saw his UFC run end with a submission loss to Jake Matthews. He recently beat Yoichiro Sato in DEEP 91 in Japan.
Even though this is theoretically a step-up in competition for MVP compared to his previous two opponents, Anzai will have an 8-inch height and 8.5-inch reach disadvantage against Page, so this is just an enormous physical mismatch on paper.
Bellator Japan features a heavyweight main event between MMA legends Fedor Emelianenko and Quinton “Rampage” Jackson. Paramount Network and DAZN will broadcast the card live in North America.