Michael 'Venom' Page claims that the 3 Arena crowd was one big factor in the decision to make this massive co-main event a reality.
Richard Kiely and MVP got heated at a press conference to promote Bellator MMA's return to Dublin in September.
The SBG Ireland fighter launched a scathing verbal attack on the 14-1 British MMA superstar during the Q&A before the pair faced off and had to be dragged apart by security.
And speaking after the aggressive first meeting, MVP told Dublin Live: "I had to let him know I'm a serious person, I just don't take him seriously."
Many fans were surprised that Page took the fight, considering Kiely's 3-1 record.
"The only reason I took this fight is because I wanted to fight in Dublin," he said. "I wanted to knock another fight off my contract and I have another one lined up in November.
"When I heard him talking nonsense I bit, and he hit back and he has good bants, so everyone was loving it online and Bellator came to me offering the fight I said 'if you're willing to pay me to fight him, why not?'"
"He probably knew who I was when I was doing kickboxing, I had no idea who he was until just the other day."
And while the end goal for MVP is a rematch with the one loss on his record Douglas Lima, he doesn't view the fight with Kiely as 'lose-lose'.
"For me, I go in there and get a highlight reel knockout, I get to tick off my bucket list that I fought in Dublin, I stay active and knock another fight off my contract, then I get to fight again quickly in November so right now I'm ticking a lot of my boxes in the win column.
"People need to understand that there are personal things involved in this, not between me and him, but I don't know if I'll get the chance to fight in Dublin again and I genuinely really want to fight here.
"The fans are amazing, I really wanted to experience that."
