Michael ‘Venom’ Page reacts to Dana White’s statement on UFC future

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MIAMI, FLORIDA - MARCH 09: Michael 'Venom' Page of England reacts after his victory against Kevin Holland in a welterweight fight during the UFC 299 event at Kaseya Center on March 09, 2024 in Miami, Florida. (Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images) | Zuffa LLC via Getty Images

Michael “Venom” Page has responded to news of his release from the UFC in typical MVP fashion.

Page signed a seven fight deal with the UFC back in 2024 and went 6-1 over the course of the deal. But those fights weren’t always entertaining. Most of them were downright dull. “Venom” uses his lightning fast reflexes to counter-strike opponents. Once they stopped walking into his buzzsaw, a whole lot of nothing ensued.

The UFC usually likes to re-sign fighters before they compete in the last bout on their contract, but Page came into UFC Paris without an offer and the clear expectation of an exciting win or a ‘See you later.’ His win over Nursulton Ruziboev was another tepid affair with barely 20 significant strikes landed between the two of them.

“Stepping in the cage is a privilege I do not take for granted and I look forward to bigger challenges,” Page said diplomatically on his Instagram after that win as he waited for word from the UFC as to what would happen next.

He didn’t have to wait long. On Monday, Page was removed from the UFC rankings. On Tuesday, UFC CEO Dana White declared “What’s the confusion? I think it’s been pretty clear that he wasn’t being re-signed.”

Page responded hours later with another post on Instagram: a picture of him pretending to hold up a massive boulder.

“Me trying to handle the internet’s opinions,” he wrote with a laughing emoji.

With that, Page disappears from the No. 8 spot on the middleweight rankings, which he earned after leaving welterweight because no one in the top five would fight him. There will undoubtedly be debates moving forward: did the UFC did him dirty or did he deserve the lame matchmaking he received en route to this casual dumping?

It was certainly no secret that the UFC wanted to see more offense from him over his last few fights, and that never happened. Page himself repeatedly promised to turn up the volume, only to revert back to most trolls per minute and not much else. We’re sure he’ll get picked up by one of the other promotions out there, and we’ll see if he can go back to pumping out the highlight reel KOs that were completely absent during his UFC run.