After cancellations in 2017 and 2019, Michael “Venom” Page and Derek Anderson will finally fight in May. Hopefully.
ESPN was the first to break the news that No. 2 ranked welterweight Page and No. 4 ranked Anderson will finally fight on May 7 at Bellator 258. Bellator would confirm the booking with a tweet an hour later.
🚨 BREAKING NEWS 🚨@Michaelpage247 (#2) and @DerekBarbaric (#6) collide in a welterweight bout at #Bellator258, Friday, May 7 live on @SHOsports. pic.twitter.com/wi2TUTO1yM
— BellatorMMA (@BellatorMMA) April 15, 2021
MVP (18-1) is riding a four-fight win streak since suffering his first knockout loss at the hands of current welterweight champion Douglas Lima. Three of those wins have come by way of knockout, including a fantastic flying knee against Richard Kiely. In his fight in 2020, he defeated Ross Houston at Bellator 248 via unanimous decision.
Anderson (17-3) is on a nice win streak as well, winning three in a row. Spending all of his career at lightweight, Anderson made the jump to welterweight in 2019, where he defeated Guilherme Bomba via unanimous decision. “The Barbaric” only fought once in 2020 as well, but it was a good one. He knocked Killys Mota out with a nasty head kick back in November.
This fight’s winner could easily slide into the No. 1 contender slot or fight Jason Jackson for the next crack at Lima.
With the last addition to Bellator 258, the fight card now looks like this:
- Juan Archuleta vs. Sergio Pettis
- Anthony Johnson vs. Yoel Romero
- James Gallagher vs. Patchy Mix
- Derek Anderson vs. Michael Page
- Josh Hill vs. Raufeon Stots
- Weber Almeida vs. Johnny Soto
- Johnny Campbell vs. Henry Corrales
- Johnny Eblen vs. Daniel Madrid
- Bryce Logan vs. Alan Omer
- Hannah Guy vs. Valerie Loureda
