This past weekend at the UFC 296 post-fight press conference, Dana White kicked things off with some pretty big news. White announced that the top free agent in MMA, Michael “Venom” Page (21-2) had signed with the promotion and he announced his debut.
White announced that MVP would be facing off against Kevin Holland (25-10) at UFC 299 on March 9th in Miami. The announcement was highly anticipated and ultimately wasn’t surprising. However, things did get cloudy recently. MVP appeared at PFL Dublin and faced off with Cedric Doumbe.
PFL posted a graphic stating that it was a “Fight in the Making”. I reached out to PFL officials following this face-off asking if they had signed Page and didn’t get a confirmation nor did I get a denial. With that, there’s a drafted article in my files detailing Page signing with the PFL. However, that was never published and things went dark after that.
Then, this weekend we got the news that we all ultimately believed we would receive in that MVP was signing with the UFC.
MVP’s UFC Dream
In talking with TNT Sports in an exclusive interview (Full Interview Below), Page talked about his dream of fighting in the UFC. MVP made it clear that from the moment he started competing in MMA, this was where he ultimately wanted to end up. However, it took some time and Page is no longer a spring chicken.
Page has garnered a ton of popularity throughout his career, but at nearly 37, he knows that the time is now to make a run towards the most prestigious title in MMA. That journey starts on March 9th with Kevin Holland. MVP is hoping to put on a huge performance which would put him right into a title eliminator.
He’s hoping to win that which would setup his dream scenario. Page talked about how there’s not really a dream matchup, but there is a dream moment. That moment would be facing off against fellow UK fighter and current UFC welterweight champion Leon Edwards (22-3, 1 NC).
Page talked about how massive that would be for the MMA scene in the UK. He talked about how it would be a win-win for those fans to have two of their countryman facing off for the welterweight title. MVP said he wanted to fill out a stadium in the UK and having those two square off just might do the trick.
That said, there are a lot of things standing in the way. MVP has a challenge in Kevin Holland and Edwards has two challenges that would be in front of him before a potential MVP fight. Those being Belal Muhammad and the extremely dangerous Shavkat Rakhmonov. However, if both men go 2-0 in their next two fights, I’m sure the UFC would be drooling over the prospect of those two facing off in a stadium in Q1 2025.
