Michael Page is a free agent.
We know this because Dana White said, very publicly,that UFC wasn’t interested in signing Pageafter he improved to 5-1 in the promotion with a decision over Nursulton Ruziboev at UFC Paris a few weeks ago. White’s comments came on the heels of UFC sending out a note to media members not to include Page in their rankings.
Page spoke to Yahoo Sports this week about his release. While Page admitted he hadn’t fought the most thrilling fights while in UFC, he sounded very surprised
at how his release from the company was handled.
“What I felt would happen was they’d be like, ‘Look, we can re-sign but it will be a lot less [money],’ and we work from there,” Page said. “But I wouldn’t have expected it to be dealt with in the way that it was dealt with. I found that quite disrespectful, to be fair.”
Part of Page’s discontent over the situation stems from being denied an in-cage interview after his win over Ruziboev.
“What is the harm in allowing me to speak?” Page said. “I’ve seen fights that have been absolutely terrible and they still get to go on the mic and say their piece. This is the second time it’s happened to me. I feel like, especially if you knew you weren’t going to re-sign me, what was the harm in even allowing me to speak to my fans and the Paris crowd?”
Page said, despite feeling irked at the way things have been handled, that he had reached out to various characters in UFC and sent some nice messages.
He also said that he would have welcomes some actual feedback from the UFC brass about his fight style; if that was such a big reason for their growing disinterest in him.
“I’m always happy to have a conversation, regardless of if it’s a difficult one or easy one,” Page said. “If you’re not happy with the performances, have a conversation with me.”
“At least it gives me a goal and something to work toward, and I know exactly where I stand with the partnership. To hear nothing and have to guess all the time, I think that’s annoying. And even after the fact, to not have a conversation to say, ‘Thank you for your time here, but we’re not going to move forward and doing any work together hereafter,’ it would just be nice to hear that beforehand.”
Page did open up about his fight style and seemed to understand that his UFC bouts were tough watches for fans.
“I just know what I’m capable of and, for some reason, I don’t know what it is, I just feel like I’m not pushing myself enough in the fights,” he said. “It’s weird to say, because I’m winning fights and I’m not at my best. It’s just a shame that I haven’t been able to really showcase my best, and yet I’m still beating fighters that are at the top of their game.”
According to Page “offers are just flying in” for his services right now. He said he’s open to anything at this stage and that practically every organization you could name has been in touch with him. It’s clear that Jake Paul’s MVP/PFL are keen on bringing him over.
Wherever Page does end up next, though, let’s hope it’s somewhere he can showcase what he’s best at. Scott Coker knew how do that. I wonder what he’s up to…
