Luke Riley has admitted that Michael Page is right to be frustrated by his placement on the UFC London card, conceding that Page “probably should be” in the co-main event instead of him.
Widnes fighter Riley, who will walk out alongside teammate Paddy Pimblett on Saturday, has been propelled into a headliner spot for only his second fight in the company off the back of a stunning knockout win in his debut at UFC Qatar last November.
The 26-year-old’s rapid rise has come at the expense of seasoned fighter “MVP”, who has made his annoyance at his booking for the event clear.
Page, 38, fights unranked Sam Patterson, an all-British bout between former training partners, on his desired return to welterweight from a successful side mission at middleweight, which saw him derail the hype train of Shara “Bullet” Magomedov before beating former title contender Jared Cannonier.
While ready to prove he is worthy of the co-main slot, Riley – who faces Michael Aswell at the O2 Arena – recognises that veteran Page is deserving of a higher position on the card.
Asked if Page had been hard done by, he said: “Being real, yeah, he probably has been. Like I am real, that’s what I like, being authentic. He probably has been hard done by. He probably should be the co-main.
“But look, I like MVP. I’ve just been in Thailand with him, funnily enough, and I was speaking to MVP every day. It was the first time I’ve met him so he’s a proper dude. Being real he probably should be the co-main but look, whatever’s going on is going on.
“I think that the thing is with the company as well, they’re trying to build me obviously and it’s guarantee for the fans what I’m going to bring. It’s 100 percent guaranteed. That’s why they put the trust in me, they know I’m going to get the fans going.”
Page was open about feeling undervalued after details emerged of Conor Benn’s eye-watering contract with Zuffa Boxing, with UFC president Dana White stuffing a reported $15m into the British bruiser’s pocket for one fight against Regis Prograis.
“Venom” nevertheless accepted reason for his placement on the card, highlighting that in the company’s new Paramount era, top-heavy events may not bode well for the maintenance of viewer engagement throughout.
“It was confusing,” Page said. “ I’m not sure what was happening. But a good friend of mine actually pointed out that the Paramount system is different.
“It’s more about the eyeballs and keeping eyeballs versus once you’ve paid your subscription, then it doesn’t really matter. So he said potentially it could simply be that they want to keep placing people in slightly different orders in order to maintain people staying on the channel.
“Whether he’s correct or not, the thought of that made me go, ‘OK, it could be a point’. Obviously we’re with a new platform now so they might do things slightly differently.
“But yeah, again, initially I just found it very, very strange. Disrespectful and strange.”
