A legend of Manchester United is set to enter a whole different kind of arena in just a few weeks time.
In one of the most surprising announcements in some time, PFL Europe recently revealed that Patrice Evra will be making his MMA debut on May 23.
His opponent and weight class is still yet to be confirmed but the former Champions League winner will make the walk inside the Accor Arena in Paris.
To help him prepare, Evra recently enlisted the help of PFL stars Cedric Doumbe and Brendan Loughnane having also received a message of support from the great Khabib Nurmagomedov.
However, the 43-year-old Frenchman’s ties to combat sports actually started years ago when he stepped inside the cage with one of the UFC’s most exciting strikers.
Patrice Evra impressed Michael ‘Venom’ Page with his punching power long before signing to PFL
In a video for COPA90 Football back in November of 2019, Patrice Evra met up with Michael ‘Venom’ Page for an interview and brief training session.
The two men spoke about their careers and mentality towards competition with Page preparing for his fight at Bellator London where he went on to stop Gianni Melillo in less than two minutes.
After chatting about their mutual love for Manchester United, it was time to get physical with Evra standing on a bench in order to face-off with the 6’3” welterweight.
Page proceeded to talk him through his iconic flying knee knockout over Evangelista ‘Cyborg’ Santos which Evra was a fan of, partly because of his memorable Pokemon-inspired celebration.
After that, the former left back put some gloves on with the Brit teaching him a few boxing fundamentals about footwork, breath control and combinations.
Without any pads or protection, after a few punches connected, Page was impressed by the power that the soccer star was able to generate despite announcing his retirement earlier that year.
The knockout artist praised his student before Evra went on to say that this could be the first of several training sessions between them.
Little did either of them know at the time that his MMA debut would come around six years later where he will step inside the SmartCage on May 23.
“I will maybe come and train with you one day because I love that.”
This wasn’t Patrice Evra’s first time throwing a few punches
In the same interview, Patrice Evra revealed that whilst he was learning some technique from Michael ‘Venom’ Page, this wasn’t the first time that he has let his hands go.
When asking Page about how he first got into martial arts and why he started training at such a young age, the former Manchester United man briefly touched on his experiences with fighting as a child.
“Why straight into fighting because I love to fight when I was a kid. I done some kickboxing in the street but I didn’t like go anymore, I just play football.”
Evra later went on to say that he would sometimes box whilst being an active soccer player because it would help to release any pent up frustrations or aggression.
“Before the training session, I was going down, doing some boxing and everything and to be fair, when we start the session, I was like more aggressive. I was tackling and we did that just to wake up all your aggression so you have to switch.”