Second on the main card was the ageless wonder, Jared Cannonier. The MMA Lab product seems to be getting better with age and the 41-year old was hoping to prove that fact once again.
Looking to proved him wrong was Michael “Venom” Page. Since coming over from Bellator, Page had seen mixed results. He came out the gate strong with a win over Kevin Holland, but dropped his second fight to Ian Machado Garry. Moving up to 185lbs saw him take a win over Shara Magomedov and influenced his decision to stay there and face Cannonier.
The fight kicked off with plenty of dancing and pageantry from Page. Cannonier wouldn’t play into any of it though as he looked to keep the fundementals get after Page. After a quick clinch Page was back to his antics and sat Cannonier down with a big shot. He then got going more with the jabs, frustrating Cannonier. Cannonier grabbed a clinch for another minute, but couldn’t do much damage before the bell sounded.
More dancing from Page started the second. While he wasn’t doing very much, what he was doing was effective. After overreaching yet again, Page tagged Cannonier and dropped him for a second time. With a couple minutes left in the round, Cannonier tried to turn another clinch into a takedown and succeeded. However, Page quickly found his feet again and broke away. He again landed next to nothing before being clinched again. The round ended with Cannonier holding Page to the cage.
Page continued to play with his food to start the third. When his antics created an awkward angle, Cannonier capitalized and took him down. He landed in half guard and quickly moved to full mount in the middle of the cage. He would batter Page from those two positions for the duration of the round, but it was just too little, too late.
Official Result: Michael Page def. Jared Cannonier by Unanimous Decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
