Michael Page's UFC Exit: Adesanya's Take on the Controversial Cut
Michael “Venom” Page’s quiet exit from the UFC has done anything but pass quietly.
On paper, his run looks solid: five wins from six in the octagon, the lone blemish a defeat to rising title contender Ian Machado Garry. For most welterweights, that kind of record buys time, leverage, and another contract. For Page, it bought a ticket to free agency.
A Win That Didn’t Save Him
The tension had been building long before UFC Paris. Page went into the final bout of his deal with questions hanging over him about whether the promotion truly believed in him. He answered the part he could control: he won again, against another difficult opponent.
The performance, though, didn’t ignite the arena or the matchmakers. The familiar complaint resurfaced. Page, the showman from his Bellator days, the human highlight reel, wasn’t producing those same viral moments under the UFC banner. The win went on his record. It didn’t save his job.
By the end of the night, the result that mattered most wasn’t on the scorecards. The UFC chose not to re-sign him.
Adesanya Calls It Out
That decision has not gone down well with everyone inside the sport. Israel Adesanya, never shy about calling the business as he sees it, made his frustration clear and drew a sharp comparison.
“It’s unfortunate. They cut Michael ‘Venom’ Page, and they don’t cut [Tai Tuivasa]… The UFC is a different business. They, the brass themselves, go on a case-by-case basis. They’re human beings, man. I’ve had my dealings with my managers in the UFC, and I’ve heard stories of how they get deals done, you know? I’m sure there’s a lot of bodies buried in the desert. But with Michael ‘Venom’ Page, I feel like they got it wrong on that one because he only lost to Ian Garry, who just went toe-to-toe with the pound-for-pound number one, Islam.”
The contrast is stark. Tuivasa remains on the roster despite an eight-fight losing streak, his heavyweight brawls and fan-friendly style seemingly buying him a level of patience Page never received. Page, with one UFC loss on his ledger, is out.
For Adesanya, the math doesn’t add up.
“A Hard Man to Kill”
Beyond the numbers, Adesanya zeroed in on what it’s actually like to face someone like Page.
“Michael is just a hard man to kill. And everyone that fights him – I know this because I’ve done this to people – I’m not the same style as Michael. But I’ve been in fights where I just know this guy just doesn’t want to attack me. This guy is just waiting. He’s waiting for me to come to him. But I’m touching the guy. I’m peppering the guy, and I’m like, ‘Bro, I’m hitting you. You’ve got to come to me.’ But they just want a freebie, and this is not a freebie.”
It’s a fighter’s perspective on a problem that doesn’t always show up in the highlight reels. Page’s style, awkward and elusive, can freeze opponents. When they refuse to bite, the spectacle suffers, and the blame often lands on the man with the reputation for flair.
The UFC sells moments. Page often ended up stuck in tense, tactical duels where the other man didn’t want to play his game.
Investment, Expectation, and the Cut
Adesanya also pointed to the weight of expectation that followed Page from Bellator into the UFC.
“You have to let people cook, give them time. Like, Michael, yeah, I understand he was a big investment from Bellator. He’s getting paid well. And he’s delivering, I think, ’cause he’s winning. But maybe they weren’t seeing what they were seeing in Bellator, and they were hoping for that kind of excitement… I find it exciting.”
That’s the crux of it. The UFC brought in a proven showman and paid him like one. They got wins, but not the chaos, not the walk-off knockouts, not the viral clips that once defined his name. From the outside, it looks like the promotion decided the return didn’t match the investment.
Adesanya doesn’t buy that logic. He sees a fighter who did his job, beat who was put in front of him, and lost only to a man now trading blows with Islam Makhachev at the very top of the sport.
Page now steps back into free agency with his reputation intact but his UFC chapter abruptly closed. For a man “hard to kill,” as Adesanya put it, the question isn’t whether he’ll land somewhere big.
It’s which promotion will seize the chance the UFC just walked away from.
