UFC welterweight Michael "Venom" Page believes Shavkat Rakhmonov will have to be a lot better than he was this past weekend if he's to successfully dethrone Belal Muhammad.
Rakhmonov successfully defended his top contender status at the UFC 310 pay-per-view on Dec. 7, a date that was originally set to mark his first title shot on mixed martial arts' biggest stage.
The undefeated Kazakh saw his opportunity fall through when an injury ruled Muhammad out, and he was instead tasked with stalling Ian Garry's hopes of leapfrogging him to the front of the queue.
He did so on the night but had to overcome plenty of adversity to have his hand raised after five rounds of action inside the T-Mobile Arena.
The competitive nature of the bout has led many to different conclusions, be it Garry being more elite than some had thought or "Nomad" underperforming.
During a UFC 310 reaction video recently uploaded to his YouTube channel, Page fell on the latter side of that.
The former Bellator standout suggested that the reigning welterweight champ would have enjoyed a comfortable first title defense opposite the iteration of Rakhmonov that made the walk in Las Vegas this past weekend.
Shavkat couldn't get anything. Rakhmonov's fitness and muscular endurance definitely let him down. His balance seems to be very off. This was definitely, by far, not the best Rakhmonov we've seen," Page said. "Although he's won it, I think anybody looking at this will look at him like, 'Yeah, I can beat this guy.'
Not saying he's not dangerous. You can see he's definitely a dangerous person. But this wasn't good. This wasn't his best performance," Page continued. "A hundred percent now, this Shavkat here, if he had fought Belal, Belal was munching him, yamming him for breakfast.
Had things turned out differently in the summer, "MVP" could have been the one sharing the cage with Rakhmonov at this year's final PPV. The Londoner was narrowly outpointed by the Irishman at UFC 303 in June, moving him to an even 1-1 record since joining the promotion in late 2023.
While he and Garry looked ahead to their respective opportunities to return to the win column in 2025, Rakhmonov will have his eyes on nothing but Muhammad and the champ's belt.