Critics of Logan Storley’s performance against Michael “Venom” Page in the Bellator 281 main event let themselves be heard throughout Friday’s fight.
While Storley (14-1) walked away with an interim title, many gave the fight to Page, who arguably did more damage in the fight. Among those critics was Bellator president Scott Coker, who scored it for Page. So did one of the three judges working the fight.
Following the event, “Storm” questioned which rounds Page had won.
“What rounds besides round four? I get it. Props to him, he’s fast and explosive, but I won all those positions, and I took the fight where I wanted it,” exclaimed Storley, speaking back stage at the SSE Arena in London. “If he wanted to keep it standing, then why didn’t he? So I won rounds one, two, three, and five. Besides round four, clearly [that] was him. One, five, and two were clearly me. That’s why judging is the way it is in our sport. Good for him I guess.”
Aside from scoring issues, the fight was being compared to another recent snoozefest, Carla Esparza vs. Rose Namajunas 2. That much-maligned title fight from last weekend’s UFC 274 was already being called the worst title fight of all time. Storley vs. Page didn’t fare much better in terms of fan reaction. But Storley questioned those who were calling it boring, or suggesting his approach was little more than lay and pray.
“Yeah, who? People on Twitter? People on Instagram who have never been in there? Thank you for watching, I appreciate those people, but you haven’t felt it,” Storley retorted. “Until you feel it— people don’t know how to react. They’ve never been in that situation. Without the fans we’re nothing, and I get that. But when you have this much on the line, you have to find a way. The paper says, what everything says, is that I’m world champ. And I’m sticking to that.”
Storley made a comparison to another low-action title fight, the Bellator 280 headliner between Ryan Bader and Cheick Kongo. “[Ryan] Bader’s fight, Bader is a good friend of mine, it wasn’t the most exciting fight, but he found a way to win. At the end of the day, we get in this sport to win. We want to be entertainers, but this is also a sport, and at the end of the day, being a champ and being a winner is important too.”
Watch the full Bellator 281 post-fight press conference with Logan Storley above.
