SOUTHAVEN, Miss. – Michael Page fought on the biggest stage yet of his young MMA career, and he put on a show Saturday night.

The trouble was, most of the fans in Southaven, Miss., didn’t care for his act one bit. To that, page says, for the most part: Too bad.

Page (6-0 MMA, 2-0 BMMA) ducked and dodged and waved his hands and wound up for punches and dance and gyrated his way to a gorgeous one-punch knockout of Ricky Rainey (8-3 MMA, 1-1 BMMA) to open Bellator 120 on Saturday, the promotion’s first pay-per-view. The showmanship didn’t go over well with the fans at Landers Center, though.

But Page said he won’t be changing any time soon.

“It’s called showboating,” the Brit said at the post-event news conference. “I intend to put on a show. The reason I’m here and I’m able to be at this table is because I fight the way I fight. To be honest, if I was fighting exactly the same as everyone else, I don’t know if I’d be here right now. It’s not me trying to be disrespectful.”

Plus, Page counters, this isn’t the first time he’s employed such style in a fight.

“If you were to go back and look at any of my kickboxing fights, I’ve been fighting like that for ages,” he said. “All it is now is that I’m trying to make it so that I’m safe enough to continue doing that in the MMA world and obviously get new fans, get new support in the MMA industry. There’s so much more that we can do in the cage. Who says we can’t do that? Who says your hands can’t be by your side? If you can get away with it, do it. That’s what it is.”

His boss, Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney, didn’t seem to mind. And that may be because he knows he may have a big star on his hands in the welterweight division – a weight class that is looking for a new standout after the departure of champion Ben Askren.

To many, Askren was a villain – and perhaps Page will become one to many people, as well. But either way, Rebney said to expect more from him soon.

“Michael Page is a different breed of cat. We got to see a little taste of it tonight,” Rebney said. “We’ll get to see more of it hopefully in short order. Barring injury, we’ll get him right back.”

And coming right back seems to be what Page would prefer, as well. And when he returns, expect more of the same playfulness in the cage, a bit reminiscent of prime Anderson Silva.

“I just want to let people know this is my style,” Page said. “This has been my style for years. I’m not going to change. I’m out here to enjoy myself and have fun on my journey and hopefully get to the top.”

For complete coverage of Bellator 120, stay tuned to the MMA Events section of the site.