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England’s Michael “Venom” Page is stepping out of his comfort zone at UFC Saudi Arabia as he moves up to the middleweight division, but insists that his work at welterweight is far from done.
Page takes on Russian knockout artist Shara “Bullet” Magomedov in the co-main event in Riyadh on February 1 in a matchup that pits two strikers with very different fighting styles head to head in a potentially explosive matchup.
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It’s a bout that makes sense for Page and, as he explained in an interview with MMA Junkie, he’d be more than happy to make the jump up to 185 pounds again in the future, if the assignment was attractive enough.
“If there is another opportunity at middleweight that looks good, looks juicy, looks tasty, 100 percent I’ll be there to do it again,” he said.
“For me, timing-wise, going to middleweight, knowing I had to go through Christmas and everything, it helped. It helped a lot. It meant I could enjoy my Christmas a lot more.
“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 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.”
Page arrived in the UFC as a former Bellator welterweight title challenger and a longtime contender in that organization’s 170-pound division. His move to the UFC has opened doors to a lot of potentially exciting matchups at welterweight, but the Londoner admitted he’d love to face former UFC welterweight champion, and fellow Brit, Leon Edwards, on one crucial condition.
“I still think the fight with me and Leon (Edwards) would be great – in the U.K. though,” he said.
“I wouldn’t take it anywhere. If somebody offered me that fight anywhere else, I wouldn’t take it. 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.
“I’m saying all this with all due respect. 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.”
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Page also spoke about the evolution that’s currently taking place in the welterweight division, which is currently headed by newly-crowned champion Belal Muhammad, who is set to take on undefeated Kazakh contender Shavkat Rakhmonov later this year.
There’s also the emergence of other new contenders like Jack Della Maddalena, who faces Edwards in the main event in London on March 22. It’s freshened up a division that was previously dominated by the rivalry between former champion Kamaru Usman and longtime contender Colby Covington.
“The division is wide open. I think we’re going for a bit of a change,” said Page.
“Colby 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.”
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