We’re not just talking about run-of-the-mill boring. This UFC London stinker ranks well among the pantheon of terrible nothing fights like Francis Ngannou vs. Derrick Lewis, Rose Namajunas vs. Carla Esparza 2 and Israel Adesanya vs. Yoel Romero. Notice that in that list are some tremendously exciting fighters who have also delivered countless classic finishes — a tremendously bad fight can strike at any time.
Still, one of UFC’s matchmaking goals is to avoid delivering bad fights. After all, it cannot be good for Paramount+ nor sponsors if a contest is so dull that people are changing the channel. UFC’s roster has 600-some fighters available, so there are lots of options available to avoid booking the worst of the worst.
Page vs. Patterson could have been prevented. It should have been prevented.
From any objective standpoint, Page deserved a bigger and better fight than unranked semi-prospect Patterson given his recent wins over Shara Magomedov (in a pretty good fight) and Jared Cannonier (in a decent fight). Though 38 years old, Page has established himself as a very tough puzzle to unravel. Only Ian Garry — one of the best strategists in the sport right now — has pulled it off inside UFC’s Octagon.
Politics aside, Page has a well-deserved reputation for both flashy knockouts and boring stinkers. Those are the dual sides of the lanky-counter-striker-karate-guy coin. We have seen many other fighters bring the same dynamic to the table with varying ratios of awesome KOs vs. unwatchable staring contests. Stephen Thompson, Israel Adesanya, even the legendary Anderson Silva — all have dropped an egg or two at various points in their careers when the style matchup resulted in a bit of nothing.
UFC should have known Page vs. Patterson specifically would be a bad fight, however. Patterson can match Page’s height and reach, taking away a key advantage that helps make the “MVP” style flow. More important, they’re former sparring partners. Patterson has already run into lots of Page’s best traps, and so he was especially hesitant on fight night. How many professional bouts have we seen look more like friendly sparring sessions because the two fighters have intimate knowledge of their opponent’s style?
Because of his prior experience with Page, Patterson was utterly unwilling to take a chance of any kind. Maybe a different young prospect with less firsthand experience chases after Page and runs into something massive, but Patterson was less aggressive than even Page himself.
What’s frustrating is that Page’s dynamic is well-established, and he’s not that hard to book appropriately. If you want to book Page in an enjoyable contest, there’s a blindingly obvious path: find an aggressive striker! In the Welterweight rankings, Page versus Uros Medic or Joaquin Buckley would have been guaranteed fireworks one way or another.
If the promotion wants to make Page’s life difficult, it doesn’t have to subject fans to all-time awful fights. There’s another simple path: book him versus a great wrestler! Somebody like Sean Brady would have either smothered Page and ejected him from relevancy or gotten knocked out in the attempt — two far preferable outcomes for the promotion compared to the Patterson snoozefest.
The one and only reason the promotion booked this fight was to punish “MVP,” but that strategy backfires when it’s the London fans in attendance doing the actual suffering.
