Michael 'Venom' Page Returns to 185 After 170 Stalls: 'No Willing Dance Partners'

Michael 'Venom' Page has spent 14 years building one of the flashiest highlight reels in combat sports. Since arriving in the UFC in 2024, he's gone 4-1 — a record most fighters would kill for — yet all four wins landed on the scorecards, and the finishes that made his name have gone missing. His only loss came by decision to recent title challenger Ian Machado Garry.

Now 39, Page has run out of patience with welterweight. He's calling out the top of the 170-pound division for stalling, and he's answered it the hard way: by moving back up to middleweight, where he'll make his third UFC walk at 185 this weekend in Paris. His opponent is Uzbekistan's Nursulton Ruziboev, a Philadelphia-based finisher who's 5-1 in the Octagon and riding a three-fight win streak.

The Finish Problem Isn't Really His

Page's UFC wins tell a consistent story. Kevin Holland, Shara 'Bullet' Magomedov, former middleweight title challenger Jared Cannonier and Sam Patterson all shared the same game plan: don't get caught, survive, take the loss on the cards rather than end up on his highlight reel. Page says he tends to put opponents into a purely defensive mindset — they walk in expecting to be better than the reputation, then discover in real time that they're not.

That's the paradox of being MVP. His reputation scares people off, which makes it harder to force the fireworks people pay to see. To pull a finish out of a locked-down opponent, he says he has to push himself that much harder just to make them open up.

Why He Left Welterweight

The move up isn't about avoiding tough fights — it's about finding them. Page didn't hide his frustration with the 170 logjam, taking a shot at fighters he says are wasting time and acting entitled to a title shot. By his count, roughly seven guys are all sitting there being tactical, waiting their turn. He said he simply doesn't have the patience, so he'd rather take the tougher route and go up in weight to actually get bookings.

For a veteran whose title window narrows with every passing year, that matters. Page says the most frustrating part is being unable to test himself against the elite at his best weight — he spars top athletes across divisions in the gym and wants to prove on the biggest stage what he already knows in training.

Against Ruziboev, Page expects the familiar pattern: opponents believe they'll engage until they feel his speed, miss a few, get frustrated and reach for the takedown. So he's flipping his own approach. He plans to be more aggressive, walk forward, get in Ruziboev's face and drag him into the exact fight he's likely trying to avoid. Reintroducing himself, in other words — the loud way.