Michael ‘Venom’ Page is ready. For what? To take on the ‘Bullet’. Not Valentina Shevchenko, the other ‘Bullet’ – the terrifying one-eyed Dagestani Shara ‘Bullet’ Magomedov. But do not underestimate ‘Venom’ because his fighting style is nothing short of chaotic and seems fitting for a Demon Slayer action sequence. Lucky for us fans, he is not a 2D anime character and his acrobatic dance moves, and explosive power are as real as they can get.

For most of his career, he fought under the Bellator banner but ‘MVP’ finally signed his much-awaited UFC contract on March 24 and stands at 1-1. ‘Venom’ is returning to Saudi Arabia on 1st February with the toughest test against Sharaputdin Magomedov. But how did he get this fight? Let’s find out.

Michael Venom Page’s story on getting the ‘Bullet’

During his conversation with James Lynch from Inside Fighting, he revealed how he got this matchup. He was defending his friend Israel Adesanya when the UFC decided to give him ‘Bullet’ and the intervention worked wonders for him. Lynch asked, “Was it a case of not getting opponents or was this just such a good opportunity to fight an undefeated guy that you’re like I got to take this uh fight?”

MVP calmly answered, “Well just to be fair it was just a bit opportunistic – simply, I heard Shara calling out my boy ‘Izzy’ and I thought let me just intercept. I wasn’t sure anything was going to come off it. But you know, I threw it out to the universe anyway. And then I got a callback from the UFC saying, you know if I was interested in this fight. And, you know, we’ve landed here.”

‘Venom’ wasn’t going to let Sharaputdin Magomedov fight ‘Izzy’. The Dagestani had called out Adesnaya after a massive KO over Armen Petrosyan at UFc 308 with a sizzling double-spinning back fist. Although fighting Israel Adesanya would catapult Magomedov into the title conversation, ‘MVP’ thinks he is a better opponent for the Dagestani who is a phenom of a striker despite having only one functional eye.

MVP’s reasoning for fighting Magomedov

‘Venom’ recently had a conversation with Mike Heck from MMA fighting on SBN and he explained his choice of fighting Magomedov. Page was quite taken by how the Dagestani had defeated Petrosyan and mentioned Magomedov’s call out of ‘The Last Stylebender’. He said, “He called out my boy ‘Izzy’. Mate, I’m at that weight right now. You don’t even have to wait too long. That one there, I’ll just take straight away just for the fun of it.”

The second question was naturally about whether ‘MVP’ would want to move up to 185 lbs to fight an undefeated middleweight. He replied, “That’s what I’m fighting at, that’s what I’m grappling at right now. So, I’m in shape now. Ready to go. So, that’s a good fight for me, I think, you know. Just a nice standup fight for everybody. Just a comeback to the game.” 

Michael Page is one of the most dynamic strikers in MMA lore. His fight against Sharaputdin Magomedov on Saturday is bound to deliver fireworks. Who do you think will win? Share your thoughts in the comments below.