When Ian Garry and Michael “Venom” Page were announced to be fighting each other at UFC 303, some people had reservations about what the fight would look like.
Whilst it’s exciting to see two of the best strikers in the welterweight division come up against one another, some styles don’t always gel well with one another.
Both men are known for being counter strikers that wait for their opponents to make the first move, before looking to strike and move.
This can lead to fights, like when Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson fought Darren Till, for example, where there’s not a lot of action to separate the two men.
Garry believes that this is how his opponent will approach the fight this Saturday based on some of his previous fights.
Ian Garry Uses Michael ‘Venom’ Page’s Approach To Fighting Douglas Lima To Predict UFC 303
“MVP” is a very unpredictable striker that relies on reading his opponents and catching them with fast strikes that they don’t see coming.
In order to do this, he needs to be able to draw reactions from his opponents by utilizing his feints and movement. Garry made reference to this during his media day interviews,where he specifically named one fight from Page’s time in Bellator.
Having been stopped by Douglas Lima in their first encounter, Page fought very strategically in their rematch to win the fight via split decision.
The undefeated Irishman believes that his fellow 170-pound striker is going to look to fight in a similar way this time out.
“I think he’s going to very patient and cautious. I use the example of MVP versus Douglas Lima 2 where in the first two and a half minutes, it was a lot of feinting, a lot of moving, a lot of trying to get Douglas to open up or throw and respond.
“He [MVP] only threw two shots and I think he’s going to respect me and I think he’s going to understand how talented I am and he’s going to come out with a similar style to that. If he doesn’t, I’m going to finish him even faster.”
