Michael ‘Venom’ Page is out of the UFC and into KSI’s Misfits Boxing, and the first thing he did with his new freedom was tell the fighters he left behind to organize.
“We have to move as one,” Page told BBC Sport, arguing that MMA fighters need a union and collective bargaining if they ever want pay that looks like what top athletes in other sports make.
Then he spelled out the leverage. “If all fighters said ‘we’re not gonna do it’, then UFC doesn’t exist,” Page said. “That’s the important thing for fighters to remember.”
The 39-year-old Briton wants MMA to copy the Muhammad Ali Act, the 2000 U.S. law written to protect boxers’ rights and push back against monopolies. Page credited that law for boxers getting paid well and said MMA needs the same thing.
He also said plenty of UFC fighters share his complaints and keep their mouths shut because speaking up could cost them. “I feel if I don’t say anything, silence is going along with it and you’re part of the problem,” he said, before giving the quiet ones a pass. “But I also understand you have your own bills to pay, so I’m not against anyone that doesn’t either.”
The money argument
Fighter pay has been a running fight all year, kicked off when Conor Benn signed a reported £11m one-fight deal with Zuffa Boxing. Zuffa Boxing belongs to UFC president Dana White, 57, which had critics asking why that kind of money isn’t showing up for his MMA roster.
White has defended UFC pay again and again, pointing to the promotion’s £5.7bn broadcast deal with Paramount. Last week, after middleweight champion Sean Strickland took shots at the pay structure, White’s answer was that Strickland signed a new contract in May.
Page said Misfits will pay him a lot more than the UFC did. He wants more promotions competing for MMA talent so fighters have somewhere else to go and more room to negotiate. “I see people in the UFC still struggling and I don’t think there’s another sport you can get to the top of your field and be struggling financially,” he said.
The UFC run and what’s next
Page debuted in the UFC in 2024 and went 5-1 in the promotion. All five wins came by decision, and fans let him hear about the lack of knockouts. He told the BBC that, for the most part, he loved his time there, praising the staff, the fans and the Performance Institute. He also said the sport has shifted toward guys willing to shave years off their lives every time they fight, and that he might have adjusted his approach if he’d clocked that sooner.
He’s targeting a Misfits debut early next year. Whether that’s under boxing or MMA rules hasn’t been decided, and Misfits has discussed adding MMA. Page floated Nate Diaz and Darren Till as interesting matchups but said no talks about opponents have happened.
My take: Page has the math right. The fighters are the product, and a product that refuses to show up has real power. He’s also the one guy in this conversation with a fresh contract from somebody else, and he just admitted most fighters won’t say a word because of the bills. A union needs signatures from the guys still under UFC contract. Strickland is the champ saying it out loud. Get two more champions on record and White has to give a better answer than a contract date.
