LAS VEGAS – UFC CEO [autotag]Dana White[/autotag] didn’t think [autotag]Ian Machado Garry[/autotag] vs. [autotag]Michael Page[/autotag] was worthy of a winner.
Garry (15-0 MMA, 8-0 UFC) defeated Page (22-3 MMA, 1-1 UFC) by unanimous decision in Saturday’s UFC 303 main card opener at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. It wasn’t the strikers’ delight that fans anticipated, with a large portion of the fight taking place on the ground. White thinks the fight should have been ruled a draw.
“Sean (Shelby) and Mick (Maynard) felt that that fight would play out exactly the way it did,” White told reporters at the UFC 303 post-fight press conference. “We talked about it leading up to this fight. I had that fight a draw. If they came out and said that fight was a draw, that was exactly what I thought that fight was, too.”
White broke down the rounds, pointing to Round 3 as the tough one to score. Page abandoned the top position that he had on Garry, which ultimately cost him. When Page stood Garry back up, Garry grabbed a hold of him and took his back to ride out the rest of the round in back control.
“Obviously Ian won the first round, MVP won the second round, and it was 50-50 in the third round,” White continued. “What was crazy was MVP had that top position and he gave it up. He could have just rode that thing out and won the round. He stood up and gave up that top position.”
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For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 303.