During the press conference for the Contender Series last week, Dana White confirmed that the UFC would not be re-signing Michael ‘Venom’ Page. The UFC CEO also revealed that Page would be removed from the rankings now that he was no longer on the roster.

The decision came as a surprise to MVP himself. The middleweight had expected to at least have a conversation with the UFC about his future, particularly after winning the final fight under his contract at UFC Paris the week before. Instead, the Englishman learned about the promotion’s decision through social media while he was on vacation. For Page, it wasn’t necessarily the decision itself that bothered him. It was how the UFC handled it.

“I had goals to achieve,” Page told Ariel Helwani on his talk show. “And regardless of anything, I was winning my fights, which says to me, ‘You get to stay.’ That’s what the premise of this game is. Success should breed more opportunities. So, I still felt like, you know, we’d sit down at the table. I felt like what may happen is they sit around the table and they just say, ‘We can re-sign you. But it’s gonna be a lot less.’ And then we work from there.

“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.”

While it’s true that Michael ‘Venom’ Page won all but one of his six UFC fights, the way the wins came left a lot to be desired, especially given the highlight-reel knockouts he had put together during his run in Bellator. However, once he got to the UFC, all his fights went the full distance. MVP failed to get even a single stoppage, including his most recent one at UFC Paris against Nursulton Ruziboev. The fight was so lackluster that it invited boos from the crowd.

As a result, despite the win, the UFC chose not to give the 39-year-old a post-fight interview, as is usually done for the winner. And that added salt to his injury. 

What’s worse is that he didn’t know about his future with the UFC beforehand. The 26-3 fighter was chilling on a holiday after his win when he saw messages and clips on social media featuring White’s announcement on the Contender Series presser. Yet, all he wished for was a conversation to try and sort things out.

“I’m always happy to have a conversation, regardless, it could be a difficult one, easy one,” Page continued. “Just being able to have a conversation can resolve a lot of issues before they even start. If I’m talking as if I’m the UFC now. I’m like, I’m not happy with the performances. Let me have a conversation with him. Like, ‘We’re not happy with the performances. If it continues this way, we’re gonna have to part ways. But we need to see more of this, this, and this.’

“It at least gives me a goal and something to really work towards, and at least know exactly where I’m at and where I stand with this partnership. To hear nothing and have to guess all the time, I think that’s annoying. And even after the fact, to not have a conversation to say, ‘Thank you for your time here, but we’re not going to move forward,’ it would just be nice to hear that before.”

Despite his frustration with the way things ended, MVP made it clear that he has no intention of dismissing his time with the UFC. The veteran striker acknowledged that he had built good relationships with members of the promotion’s staff and said he still had plenty of appreciation for his time there.

White, meanwhile, has put the decision down to the UFC’s matchmaking team.

“Listen, at the end of the day, the matchmakers make the decisions on who stays and who goes, and they didn’t want to re-sign him,” the UFC head honcho told the media this past weekend.

With the UFC chapter officially closed, the 39-year-old is now one of the more recognizable free agents in combat sports. And he already has several possible destinations outside the Octagon.

Michael Page still has a couple of options outside the Octagon

The PFL has shown interest in bringing Page aboard, while the promotion continues to strengthen its partnership with Jake Paul’s Most Valuable Promotions. That could give Page an opportunity to become one of the faces of MVP.

Meanwhile, Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship has also opened its gates for Page. Page has already competed for the promotion, facing Mike Perry in 2022. Although he lost that fight by decision, the bout was an entertaining one and remains one of the more notable matchups of Page’s career outside MMA.

BKFC founder David Feldman believes the promotion could bring out a different side of the British striker.

“We would definitely welcome ‘MVP’,” BKFC founder David Feldman told Bloody Elbow. “When he fought for us with Mike Perry, it was a pretty exciting match, and a lot of people actually thought he won that fight.

“You can’t really be boring in BKFC, so it’s hard for him to fight that type of fight in BKFC. Would we be interested? I think BKFC will force excitement out of ‘MVP’, and I think that the fans would love that.”

Michael ‘Venom’ Page now has to decide what comes next. His UFC run may have ended more abruptly than he expected, but the 39-year-old still has several avenues available as he begins the next chapter of his career.