Michael "Venom" Page is not disputing the UFC's right to cut him. He's disputing the way it happened — without a conversation, without a phone call, and, for the second straight fight, without even letting him speak to the crowd.
“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.”
The UFC opted not to re-sign Page (26-3) after he fought out his contract with a unanimous decision win over Nursulton Ruziboev at UFC Fight Night 287 in Paris earlier this month. Page went 5-1 in the Octagon, riding a four-fight win streak, and expected at minimum a discussion about his future. Instead, he found out the way everyone else did — pulled from the official rankings, with UFC CEO Dana White confirming at a Contender Series presser that the promotion was done with him.
"I had goals to achieve and regardless of anything, I was winning my fights, which says to me you get to stay," Page told Ariel Helwani. "That's the premise of this game, is success should breed more opportunities. So, I still felt like we'll sit down at the table."
He even expected the negotiation to be about money: "I felt what may happen is they just say, 'Look, we can re-sign you, but it's going to be a lot less,' and we work from there. But I wouldn't have expected it to be dealt with in the way that it was dealt with."
The second grievance stings just as much. Page was denied a post-fight Octagon interview after the Ruziboev win — the second straight time, after his decision over Sam Patterson at UFC London in March. "You've seen fights that have been absolutely terrible, and they still get to go on the mic and say their piece," Page said. "So, 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, speak to the Paris crowd who are amazing?"
The business logic isn't hard to see. Page's highlight-reel Bellator style never translated: all six of his UFC fights went the distance, he recorded zero finishes, and the point-fighting approach drew plenty of boos. At 39, the promotion decided a 5-1 winner wasn't worth a second deal.
What's next turned out to be the interesting part. On October 10, Page signed a multi-fight, multi-year deal with Misfits Boxing, announced at the promotion's London event — no debut date or opponent announced yet. He says the three-fight deal will pay him more than his entire six-fight UFC run did. A fighter who thrives on personality and spectacle has landed somewhere that values both.
