Heading into his Bellator 281 main event against Michael “Venom” Page for the interim welterweight championship, Logan Storley knew that an exciting fight would likely be a bad thing for him. By largely grinding the action to a halt, Storley executed his gameplan against his explosive opponent, earning a split decision victory.
Throughout the fight, Storley had to figure out ways to close the distance on Page, who is a rangy and unorthodox striker with big knockout power. Whenever Storley was able to get inside, he would clinch and hold on to Page while trying to drag him to the ground. Storley was rarely able to truly put Page on his back but his insistence on neutralizing Page’s striking with pure grappling did pay off.
After three rounds that truly could have gone to either fighter, depending on if you wanted to reward Page for brief moments of striking or Storley for prolonged stretches of dragging his opponent toward the canvas, Page looked to finally have his offense rolling in Round 4, picking apart Storley at range with quick strikes. Still, Storley was able to eat those shots and come back with his own most dominant round in Round 5.
After five largely uneventful rounds of action, the fight went to the judges’ scorecards where there was no guarantee which fighter would have his hand raised. Two of the three official judges saw the fight for Storley, handing him the win by scores of 48-47, 47-48, 49-46.
“That guy is unbelievable and I had to do what I had to do,” Storley said after the fight. “Boo me all you want but I’m a world champ.”
Storley is now 14-1 in his career, his lone defeat coming to Yaroslav Amosov via split decision. Amosov would go on to become the division champion before being forced out of action due to the ongoing conflict in his native Ukraine. Amosov’s lack of availability led to the interim title being on the line for the fight.
