Michael “Venom” Page is confident of recording yet another violent stoppage in mixed martial arts, this time at the expense of undefeated Dagestani Shara Magomedov.
Page’s first Octagon outing of 2025 will come in new surroundings, with the Londoner briefly departing his usual home of welterweight for a planned one-off battle opposite Magomedov at 185 pounds in Saudi Arabia this Saturday.
While “MVP” still boasts aspirations of title glory at the lower weight, he’ll look to bounce back from a narrow decision loss to Ian Garry during International Fight Week last year before resuming his pursuit of gold at 170 pounds.
And to do so, Page isn’t expecting to require the scorecards.
During a recent interview with The Independent, “MVP” looked ahead to his impending showdown with “Bullet” in Riyadh and predicted that fans will witness the 15th knockout of his career.
“Honestly speaking, I believe he’s tailor-made for me to get that (knockout) shot early,” he said. “By early, I just mean before the time is up. But he’s equally dangerous, to where if I make those mistakes, that could happen to me. You have to consider both sides. I just really believe in what I can do, and that my style fits perfectly against him.”
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Whichever way the fight goes, many MMA enthusiasts are expecting the result to come by way of a stoppage.
While Page’s exploits are well known, Magomedov is far from a slouch in the KO department. 12 of the Russian’s 15 professional wins have come via knockout, including two in the UFC.
“Bullet” most recently finished Armen Petrosyan at UFC 308 last October with an innovative double spinning backfist.