Michael “Venom” Page is heading back to middleweight, and UFC Paris just picked up one of those matchups that can get weird in a hurry. Page will face Nursulton Ruziboev on Sept. 5 at Accor Arena in Paris, France, adding another sharp name to the same run where Page already had to answer for an awkward UFC London win over Sam Patterson and a bigger middleweight push after his Jared Cannonier result.
UFC France announced the fight Wednesday morning with the line, “Le reste de l’Europe sera là aussi !”, which roughly translates to the rest of Europe will be there too. That is a tidy way to sell it, because this one brings England’s flashiest karate sniper against an Uzbek finisher who has been quietly stacking bodies again at 185 pounds.
Le reste de l’Europe sera là aussi ! pic.twitter.com/2Ypc1ZS0zR
— UFC France (@UFCFRA) July 15, 2026
Page Gets Another Middleweight Problem
Page enters at 25-3 in MMA and 4-1 in the UFC, with his UFC run already bouncing between divisions. His most recent outing was a decision win over Sam Patterson at welterweight in March, a fight that got him back in the win column without exactly setting the building on fire. Before that, Page had picked up bigger momentum at 185 pounds, including the kind of name-value win over Jared Cannonier that pushed him into a more serious conversation.
That Cannonier win matters here because Page has been hunting bigger opportunities since arriving from Bellator, where his style made him one of the sport’s most watchable highlight collectors. When MVP is given space, he turns MMA into a staring contest with consequences. The question is whether Ruziboev lets him have that room or turns this into a clinch-heavy grind where the pretty stuff gets mugged in the parking lot.
Ruziboev comes in at 37-9-2 in MMA and 5-1 in the UFC. His lone UFC loss came against Joaquin Buckley at welterweight in 2024, but the move back up to middleweight has treated him much better. He is coming off a first-round submission of Andrey Pulyaev at UFC Baku in June, and that makes three straight wins since the Buckley setback.
This is the fun part of the booking. Page is the cleaner long-range striker, the guy who can make opponents look frozen when his timing is humming. Ruziboev is not here to admire footwork. He has the record of a man who has lived in chaos for years, and if he can crowd Page early, this gets uncomfortable fast.
The UFC Paris lineup also includes Kurtis Campbell vs. Trevor Peek, Modestas Bukauskas vs. Oumar Sy, Losene Keita vs. Muhammad Naimov, Mario Pinto vs. Ryan Spann, and Nora Cornolle vs. Klaudia Sygula. The headliner still has not been announced, but Page vs. Ruziboev gives the September card a proper style clash while fans wait for the top slot to land. Page has already survived the awkward UFC London criticism after the Sam Patterson fight, and now he gets a middleweight opponent who will not be showing up for a sparring session.
