Michael ‘Venom’ Page has completed his journey from elite kickboxer to elite MMA fighter, but those early BJJ training sessions were incredibly tough. It’s an experience that any grappler is familiar with, as the sport is very unforgiving when you don’t know what to do. It’s much more shocking when someone is already a successful combat sports athlete like Page was though, as he would have been used to feeling confident in fighting scenarios. Page has been training since he was just 3 years old and competing since he was 5, so he was already one of the best strikers in the world when he first put on a gi.
He recently made an appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience and when the topic of BJJ came up, Page was quick to confirm that his elite striking didn’t make a difference to that initial difficult period:
“All I was doing every day was applauding people because I was tapping every two seconds. I just… every two seconds.”
He also shared exactly why that was a shock to the system for him too:
“I’m looking at this guy like if I saw you on the street in my head, I’m destroying you. But this guy just twisted me up into a pretzel. It’s a humiliating feeling.”
Obviously Page stuck with the sport and it wasn’t long before he was ready to make his professional MMA debut. Although he was known for his elusive and flashy striking, he actually got a handful of submission finishes in his first few years of fighting. Page became one of the top contenders at Bellator and has since made the move over to the UFC, where he is one of the top ten middleweights in the world. He’s now 24-3 in MMA and has even tested himself under grappling rules too, beating Carlos Condit by decision at Polaris 30.
The full interview with Michael ‘Venom’ Page where he talks about his first experiences with BJJ was uploaded to the official YouTube channel of The Joe Rogan Experience:
