Michael Page scored hisfifth UFC win over the weekend, out-pointing Nursulton Ruziboev for another decision victory. MVP is now 5-1 in UFC, since joining the promotion in 2025. However, all those wins might not be good enough to keep the 39-year-old in the Octagon.
Page is seemingly out of contention for the UFC rankings. That’s a sign that a fighter’s contract with the promotion is up. It remains to be seen if Page re-ups with the big boys or uses this as an opportunity to bring his big name to a small
org. His old collaborator Scott Coker is out there now. And there’s also a promotion which, literally, has his name on it.
The tea leaves are suggesting that neither Page nor UFC are that interested in continuing their relationship. That’s despite Page being a well known commodity and him beating five pretty decent UFC products in the last few years. The big reason for this disconnect might be Page’s fighting style, which — currently — doesn’t really fit with Dana White’s “I’m just looking for Holy Shit moments!” mentality.
Former UFC Middleweight champ Robert Whittaker, who is currently in the thickof the UFC’s Light Heavyweight division, spoke about Page’s style and the tension between how good he is and how, at times, hard to watch he can be.
Whittaker was on the MMArcade Podcast recently, chatting about ‘Venom’. He said he didn’t watch Page’s pretty convincing decision over a hobbled Ruziboev.
“I have nothing but respect for ‘MVP.’, started Whittaker (ht Alexander K. Lee). “His ability to do what he does at his age is crazy. It’s like he’s dancing in there. He’s so fast and fluid, but I find it so hard to tune in live to MVP winning via points, rather than watching it back afterwards.”
Whittaker went on to say that he didn’t think anyone could beat Page when it comes to ‘point-sparring’. The Aussie also joked that it was like Page had a supernatural ability to understand what judges are seeing in a fight and where the decision is heading.
“I feel like it’s almost like he has a live feed of the judges’ scorecards, like, in real time. As soon as it starts to drop, he just does a little bit more, and it goes back up. He just does enough, which is the game, right? But man, it makes it hard to watch fights back when he’s doing that.”
Page now heads into free agency during a very interesting time in MMA. The UFC might not be interested in having him fight on their cards, but they might be interested in keeping him off Coker or Paul’s or, at the very least, forcing those rivals to overpay.
If this is the last of Page in UFC, though. At least the mercurial Englishman has helped answer the question that dogged him when he was in Bellator breaking skullsand throwing poke balls (“what would we see him do in UFC, though?”).
Turns out we’d see him win, a lot, if you could bare to watch it.
