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Michael "Venom" Page (2025) - MMA Style & Mental Fortitude · The Joe Rogan Recap

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  Welcome to the Joe Rogan recap. Today, we're really getting into
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  the career of Michael Venom, page MVP.
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  Yeah, MVP, he's honestly one of the most, maybe the most
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  polarizing figures in MMA, wouldn't you say?
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  And definitely unique. Oh, absolutely.
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  And, you know, for anyone who's tracked MMA for like, the last
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  couple of decades, MVP is kind of the ultimate.
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  I told you so. How do you mean?
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  Well, remember how our sources, Rogan especially, kept talking
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  back in the early 2000s about point fighting skills, saying
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  that was the missing piece. Right.
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  And people kind of laughed at the idea back then.
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  Exactly, they mocked it but MVP is the proof of concept.
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  He took that style and made it work.
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  Becoming, like the sources say, maybe the most enigmatic,
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  difficult do to solve in all of MMA.
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  So that's our mission today really to unpack how that point
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  fighting background, which seems, you know, almost to touch
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  and go for MMA, how it actually became this massive advantage
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  for him. It's a.
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  Super interesting evolution to look at because if you put MVP's
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  style next to say, traditional full contact kickboxing, they're
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  worlds apart. Right.
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  Traditional kickboxing is more about power, pressure, taking a
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  shot to give. Precisely.
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  It's about absorbing damage, walking opponents down.
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  MVP. His style comes from that high
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  level point stuff. It's all about the speed element
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  elusiveness. In getting out, yeah.
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  Think less about absorbing more like fencing maybe, or that
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  quick tag game you play as kids. You touch the target, you're out
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  before they can even react, before they shift their weight.
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  He's basically weaponizing distance and timing then, and
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  the sources suggest that this worked because mainstream MMA
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  kind of left the door open for him.
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  Totally. Look, modern MMA, it got really
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  saturated with wrestling and you know, power punching.
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  Lots of really good strikers end up a bit flat footed.
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  Waiting for the big shot or the takedown entry.
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  Exactly. They're waiting.
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  And that static stance, that predictable rhythm that creates
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  this huge opening for someone slippery like MVP.
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  If you can't hit the guy, his power doesn't matter much, does
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  it? It's like he says, right?
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  Power only means something if you land.
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  That's the core of it. OK, but hang on, if it's that
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  effective, why don't we see more like Taekwondo world champions
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  just walking into the UFC and dominating?
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  What's the catch? Yeah, that is the $1,000,000
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  question, isn't it? Because striking is striking,
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  you can adapt that. You can learn low kicks, adjust
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  your stance. But the grappling?
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  The grappling, that's the wall for any pure striker coming
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  over, solving the takedown defense, figuring out what to do
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  on the ground. I mean, it's like learning a
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  whole new language. It ends careers.
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  So how did MVP crack that code? Because he's obviously not known
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  for his wrestling offense. Well, what's really fascinating
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  is how his striking style actually helps his defense,
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  maybe unintentionally at first. His whole game is built on
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  constant movement, right lateral shifts controlling the distance,
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  never standing square in front of you.
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  Hard to shoot a takedown on a target that's always moving
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  sideways. Incredibly hard.
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  A wrestler needs to close that distance, get control of the
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  hips. But how do you do that
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  consistently when the guy's practically a ghost just darting
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  around the edge? Once he figured out the basics
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  of defensive grappling just not to survive and get up, his
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  movement turned that potential weakness into, well, almost his
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  strength. Because every fight starts on
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  the feet. Every single one.
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  And he forces opponents to play his game from the bell, trying
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  to solve this puzzle that almost no one else presents, which.
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  Explains why opponents get so visibly frustrated.
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  You mentioned Kevin Holland. Yeah, Holland's a great example.
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  High level striker himself, very skilled, very dangerous, but he
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  fought MVP and afterwards just flat out said he hated every
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  moment of it. Because it's just unfamiliar.
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  Totally. MVP's main goal is not be
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  touched. That forces you to fight on a
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  weird wavelength, a different timing.
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  You can find sparring partners to mimic a boxer or a wrestler,
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  but finding someone who moves and thinks like MVP?
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  Almost impossible. It's like a mental game as much
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  as a physical one. Oh definitely, and he leans into
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  that psychological warfare aspect too.
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  The sources mentioned that, yeah, like that story with Jared
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  Cannonier. That's.
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  Classic MVP, he lands a good shot, Cannoniers may be rocked,
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  backs off and MVP just stands there, looks down at him and
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  says calm down, calm down. Whoa.
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  Right. Imagine you're hurt, maybe
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  seeing stars, and the guy who just did it is telling you to
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  chill out. It's designed to get in your
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  head, make you emotional, make you reckless.
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  Totally demoralizing. And that calculated side,
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  combined with the physical danger, it leads us to that
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  fight, the Cyborg Santos knockout.
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  Yeah, that one. That's ament in MMA history for
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  sure. And MVP himself says it's a big
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  part of my history. The visual was brutal, that
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  knee. And apparently MVP didn't even
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  realize how bad it was at first. He thought it was just, you
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  know, a really good knockout. But the damage?
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  It was insane. The doctor said later they'd
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  only seen injuries like that from like car accidents.
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  Cyborg skull was literally caved in.
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  The sound. People described it like a
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  baseball bat hitting a pumpkin. It's a stark reminder of what's
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  actually happening in there. Absolutely.
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  It's a brutal business, even when it looks like a game
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  attack. Which makes you wonder, why did
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  he even switch to MMA? He was already a world champion
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  kickboxer right? Fighting guys like Raymond
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  Daniels. He was multiple world titles,
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  but here's the kicker. The reality of professional
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  kickboxing, at least back then for him, was grim.
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  No money. Pretty much he was at the top
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  fighting the same few guys over and over, getting basically no
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  recognition, 0 sponsorships. Yeah, he said.
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  He had to pay for his own travel, his own camps.
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  So he's running world titles and coming home broke.
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  Essentially, yeah. So he basically had to retire
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  from being a kickboxing world champion just to find a sport
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  where he could actually compete for a living.
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  Yeah. It wasn't about belts anymore.
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  It's about paying the bills. That's quite a pivot.
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  And you mentioned the grappling hurdle.
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  How did he actually Start learning that?
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  He talked about walking into London, shoot fighters, a top
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  gym and just getting absolutely mauled.
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  So it was humiliating. Stepping out constantly.
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  Every two seconds, apparently apologizing to his partners.
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  But the key thing is he didn't quit.
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  He said he actually loved the challenge, the puzzle of it.
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  And he realized, OK, if I want to make this MMA thing work,
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  it's not just about learning takedown defense.
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  I need I need a brand. So the business side clicks in.
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  This is where the style and the strategy really merge.
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  Exactly. He started actually studying
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  marketing, looking at guys like Wayne the Rock Johnson.
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  Really. The Rock.
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  How he carried himself, the simple catch phrases, the whole
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  persona. MVP realized that in MMA,
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  especially on a big card with like 16 fights, you got to stand
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  out instantly. You make an impression fast,
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  right? He focused on that crucial
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  window like 5 seconds after the fight on the mic, having
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  something concise, memorable, and the.
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  Visuals to the walkout. Everything, the venom snake hand
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  gesture, the flashy entrances, the dancing, it was all
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  calculated. Make yourself so unique that
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  even if someone only catches your fight, they remember you.
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  Michael Venom Page. It's like psychological warfare,
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  not just on the opponent, but on the audience's memory.
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  Absolutely. Build that brand loyalty, ensure
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  attention. It's smart.
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  Super smart, but now he's in the big leagues UFC level, and the
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  sources say he's actually finding new frustrations like
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  the fight schedule. Yeah, that's a big one for him.
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  Remember, he came from that kickboxing circuit where he
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  might be fighting almost every weekend, or at least very
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  regularly. And MMA is much slower paced,
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  fights maybe 2-3 times a year if you're lucky.
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  Exactly. And it's tough for him mentally
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  and probably financially too. It's hard to keep momentum and
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  you got to remember the scale. UFC has what, like 674 fighters
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  under contract? Wow, that many.
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  Yeah, it's a huge roster. So just getting matched, finding
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  the right opponent at the right time, navigating injuries and
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  rankings, at least to these long layoffs.
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  And when he does fight, dealing with that pressure, we mentioned
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  the dancing, the smiling in the cage.
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  It's not just showboating. Apparently not entirely.
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  He says it's a way to manage his own stress.
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  He needs to stay chill to perform his best.
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  So if he feels himself getting tense, tight.
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  He dances it out. Kind of, yeah.
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  Uses the movement, the looseness, as like a a mental
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  reset button, a physical way to release that tension and get
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  back into his flow state, his matrix.
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  OK, let's just do another reality.
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  All fighters deal with something our source Rogan is always fired
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  up about weight cutting calls. It legalized cheating.
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  And it's a huge factor. MVP walks around.
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  Apparently somewhere near 215 lbs. 02/15 and fights at 170,
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  sometimes 185. That's a big cut.
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  It is, but he describes his process as maybe less extreme
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  than some, like a 30 minute easy jog then maybe 15 minutes
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  wrapped up in a sauna. So involves serious dehydration,
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  obviously. Maybe not the crazy dangerous
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  levels we sometimes hear about. Right, You got to contrast it
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  with the horror stories, you know, guys looking like dead men
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  walking at weigh insurance, TJ Dillashaw trying to make 125.
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  Look like a skeleton. Or Alex Pereira walks around
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  huge, cuts down to 185, then apparently steps in the cage
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  sometimes around 220 lbs. Fighting someone who weighed in
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  35 lbs lighter just the day before.
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  Exactly. And we mentioned this because
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  the danger is real, that extreme dehydration pulls fluid away
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  from your brain, reducing its natural cushion.
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  Makes you way more susceptible to knockouts to brain trauma.
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  So MVP is relatively cleaner cut if that's accurate.
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  Could actually be a hidden advantage in terms of
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  durability. And Speaking of durability and
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  pushing through, there was that story about him fighting Ian
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  Gary right, with a bad injury. Yeah, pretty wild, he said.
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  It was his worst fight week injury ever.
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  The day before the fight, he literally couldn't stand on his
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  left foot. No way.
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  How did he even fight? Had to get a heavily taped
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  ankle. Supports the work, said he
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  basically ran on pure adrenaline during the fight itself.
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  It just shows you the kind of mental toughness required at
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  that level. Sometimes you just have to
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  override what your body is screaming at you.
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  Looking back at that whole journey then, from being
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  humiliated in the grappling room to fighting on one foot, what's
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  the big take away for someone listening?
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  Maybe someone trying to master their own field?
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  I think MVPS story really hammers home that top level
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  success often isn't about just raw day one talent, it's about
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  enduring failure, learning from it.
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  He talked about getting destroyed in tournaments for
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  years. Yeah, for like 4 or five years
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  straight, losing all the time, especially to his older brothers
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  who are also competing. He wasn't winning anything.
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  But then suddenly it just. Clicked.
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  That's how he described it at a World Championship qualifier.
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  Suddenly he felt like he entered the matrix.
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  Everything slowed down. He saw all the angles and just
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  started dominating instantly. What changed?
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  Was it just physical maturation? He thinks it was more about
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  visual learning because he lost so much.
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  He spent years just sitting and watching his brothers, watching
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  other elite competitors win. His brain was absorbing the
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  patterns, the timing, the strategy.
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  Until his body caught up. Exactly.
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  He learned how to win by washing, by analyzing, by
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  processing all those losses, not necessarily just by winning
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  himself early on. So for you, the listener may be
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  diving into something tough. Business, sports, whatever.
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  The lesson here seems to be that sometimes the biggest
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  breakthroughs don't come from just grinding the same
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  conventional methods harder. Right.
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  It's about finding those unconventional angles,
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  exploiting the weaknesses everyone else overlooks because
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  they're stuck in the standard way of doing things, and having
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  the grit to stick with it through the failures until you
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  find your matrix. That willingness to be different
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  combined with the resilience that seems to be the MVP
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  formula. And it's interesting, you know,
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  that creativity doesn't seem to stop at a cage door for him.
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  You mean his filmmaking stuff? Yeah, the sources mentioned he
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  has his own film company now, ITM.
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  He's already made a couple of short films.
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  What are they? About.
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  One called Runner, apparently about the sort of toxic mindset
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  an athlete can get into, and another called wait, about
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  dealing with anxiety while you're waiting for big news,
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  good or bad. Exploring the mental side of
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  things again. Exactly.
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  It feels like a natural extension of his brand, that
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  performance art mentality moving into storytelling.
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  It's definitely something interesting to check out, see
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  where that creative energy goes next, especially as his fighting
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  career eventually winds down. A fascinating path.
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  We'll definitely keep an eye on that.
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  All right, that's our deep dive for today.
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  We'll catch you on the next one.