Michael “Venom” Page doesn’t plan to make middleweight his permanent home despite preparing for a high-profile bout in the division.
Page is set to face Shara Magomedov in a middleweight co-headliner at the UFC Fight Night on Feb. 1 at the ANB Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, airing on ESPN+. The fight follows Magomedov’s callout of Israel Adesanya after UFC 308, prompting Page to suggest a matchup with him instead, which the UFC quickly booked.
While excited for this one-off fight, Page clarified that middleweight is not his long-term focus.
“To be fair, for me anyway, it’s back to work at welterweight,” Page told MMA Junkie. “If there is another opportunity at middleweight that looks good, looks juicy, looks tasty, 100 percent I’ll be there to do it again. For me, timing-wise, going to middleweight, knowing I had to go through Christmas and everything, it helped. It helped a lot.”
Page explained that moving up to middleweight allowed him to enjoy the holiday season without the pressures of cutting weight. However, he emphasized that his ambitions remain in the welterweight division.
“In general, I’ve still got a lot of business that I want to handle at welterweight. So for me, this is a one-off, exciting fight at that weight. Maybe in the future, you’ll see me there, but for now, I still find it comfortable to get to welterweight, and I’ve still got people I’d love to fight.”
One fight, in particular, stands out for Page: a matchup with former welterweight champion and fellow countryman Leon Edwards, who is scheduled to headline UFC London against Jack Della Maddalena at The O2 this March.
“I still think the fight with me and Leon would be great – in the U.K. though,” Page said. “I wouldn’t take it anywhere else. It does a disservice to our country. I think that fight needs to be over here. I know we’ve got the U.K. card coming, obviously we’ve missed that boat. Let’s say that’s the only one they do this year, then that wouldn’t happen. Again, I’m saying all this with all due respect.”
Page believes the welterweight division is undergoing significant changes, making it an exciting time for potential matchups.
“I just think it’s a great fight to have. I would have loved for it to have been for a belt, but just in general, I think it’s a great fight anyway. The division is wide open. I think we’re going through a bit of a change. Colby [Covington] didn’t look too good in his last fight and obviously lost. There’s a change of the guard that’s happening in that division at the moment, so I think it’s wide open for everybody, and I just want to be in the mix of it.”
