Michael Page scored an own goal fifth UFC win of the weekendpointing to Nursulton Ruzibojev for another decision win. MVP is now 5-1 in the UFC since joining the promotion in 2025. However, all those wins may not be good enough to keep the 39-year-old in the Octagon.
The page is apparently Out of contention in the UFC rankings. This is a sign that the fighter’s contract with the promotion has expired. It remains to be seen if Page will work with the big boys or use this as an opportunity to bring his big name to a small organization. His old collaborator Scott Coker is currently out. And there’s a promotion literally named after him.
The papers suggest that neither Page nor the UFC is all that interested in continuing their relationship. This is despite the fact that Page is a known commodity and has won five pretty decent UFC products in recent years. The main reason for this disconnect may be Page’s fighting style, which – at this point – doesn’t really fit Dana White’s “I’m just looking Holy shit moments!” mentality.
Former UFC middleweight champion Robert Whittaker, who is currently thick of the UFC light heavyweight division talked about Page’s style and the tension between how good he is and how hard he is to watch at times.
Whittaker was there MMarcade Podcast rtalking about “Venom” recently. He said he didn’t watch Page’s fairly convincing decision over the bouncer Ruziboyev.
“I have nothing but respect for ‘MVP,'” Whittaker began (ht Alexander K. Lee). “His ability to do what he’s doing at his age is crazy. It’s like he’s dancing there. He’s so fast and smooth, but it’s so hard for me to tune in live to win MVP splits instead of looking back on it later.”
Whittaker went on to say that he didn’t think anyone could beat Page when it came to point sparring. The Aussie also joked that Page seemed to have a supernatural ability to understand what the judges were seeing in a fight and where the decision was going.
“I feel like he almost has a live feed of the refs’ scorecards. As soon as it starts to go down, 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 him do it.”
Page now heads into free agency at a very interesting time in MMA. The UFC may not be interested in having him fight on their cards, but they may be interested in keeping him away from Coker or Paul, or at least forcing their rivals to overpay.
If it’s the last of the page in the UFC though. At least the lively Englishman has helped answer a question that has plagued him during his time at Bellator crushing skulls and throwing balls (“what would we see him do in the UFC?”).
Turns out we’d see him win a lot if you could watch it.