Michael Page moves up to middleweight after top welterweights dodge him for title shots

Michael Page is done waiting for ranked UFC welterweights to stop protecting their title-shot positioning — and has moved up to middleweight as a direct result. The former Bellator standout makes his return at UFC Paris against Nursulton Ruziboev, having grown increasingly frustrated with the matchmaking landscape at 170 pounds.

Page holds a 4-1 record inside the UFC Octagon, his only defeat coming against Ian Garry, who went on to challenge for the welterweight title. Rather than landing a marquee follow-up fight at 170, Page was booked against middleweights Sharabutdin Magomedov and Jared Cannonier before dropping back down to welterweight for a low-profile bout with unranked compatriot Sam Patterson — a sequence he clearly found unsatisfying.

The Englishman placed the blame squarely on the attitudes of the welterweight division’s upper tier. “Everyone at welterweight is, I’m trying to be polite here,” Page said. “I feel like there’s too many people wasting time at welterweight at the moment. Too many people with entitlement issues… They believe that they should be the next in line. And so, they’re going to wait and this and that. I don’t have the patience for that.”

Page acknowledged that a championship remains his ultimate goal, but argued that the calculated approach many contenders take to matchmaking is counterproductive — and, for him, simply not worth tolerating. “Everyone’s goal is the belt, but there’s no need to be this tactical about it,” he said. “And there’s like seven people being tactical about it. It’s annoying. So, I just said, I’ll go the tougher route and just move up a weight.”

Rather than sit idle while ranked welterweights manoeuvre around each other, Page has opted to test himself at 185 pounds, framing the move as a statement of intent rather than a retreat. His bout with Ruziboev at UFC Paris will be his second middleweight appearance in the promotion, giving him a chance to build credibility in a second division while the welterweight logjam plays out.