Shara ‘Bullet’ Magomedov vows not to shoot against Michael ‘Venom’ Page in Saudi Arabia

‘Bullet’ says he’s never shot for a takedown and won’t against Page. ‘MVP’ is a little more open to fighting on the ground.

Ryan Harkness breaks down daily mixed martial arts (MMA) news, providing unique context to stories that only 15 years of obsessing over the sport can provide, having worked for FOX Sports, Yahoo! Sports, UPROXX, MSN, Bleacher Report, HDNet and CagePotato, among others, before joining MMAmania.com in 2017.

Who will shoot a takedown during Saturday morning’s UFC Saudi Arabia fight between Michael “Venom” Page and Shara “Bullet” Magomedov?

It’s been a hot topic between the two strikers, who definitely have enough ground skills built up over their extensive careers to change the flow of the fight should they decide to use them. “MVP” has always excelled on the feet and struggled when opponents wrestled him to the canvas, so you’d think it was in Shara’s best interest to threaten takedowns. But the half-blind fighter says there’s no way that’s happening

“I’ve had twenty fights in MMA at this point, and I’ve never gone for a takedown,” he said during media day interviews. “I watched his fights. It doesn’t look like he goes for takedowns too much. But I’m going to be that person. I’m going to make ‘MVP’ be the first one to jump for a takedown.”

In response, Page has said he might go for a takedown, but it ain’t gonna be out of desperation.

“When I said it, I wasn’t talking about who was going to do it first,” Page clarified during his media day time. “I was simply saying he would. I can make him do it.”

“I’m happy to shoot a takedown. This is an MMA game,” he continued. “So, I’m happy to do it. I’ve been working on that area, but I don’t feel like I’ll need to. There’s a difference. I may get to a point where I feel like it may be worth draining him out on the floor a little bit, landing some shots, elbows on the floor. So I may do that, but I don’t think I’m going to need to.”

“Whereas, if he shoots a takedown, it’ll be for a completely different reason. If I do it, it’s just part of my game plan. If he does it, he’s in danger. That’s the difference.”

The takeaway here is this fight will be contested on the feet, which is exciting, not on the ground, which is boring. Not an outlook we agree on, but we’ve all seen those fights where the flashy high-flying striker gets pinned to the mat and dragged to a disappointing decision. We’re getting guarantees this won’t be one of those, and honestly? We’ll take it in this case.