Michael Page is thrilled to have an opponent who is as good at hyping fights as he is.

In the lead-up to his co-main event bout with Shara Magomedov at UFC Saudi Arabia on Saturday, Page told Michael Bisping on a podcast that Magomedov will be “bloodied up” in their fight. “Shara Bullet” lived up to his name when he later responded with a video of him wielding a shotgun over a fallen and bloody corpse.

Magomedov’s response might have shocked some at first glance, but “MVP” was a huge fan of the clip.

“I loved it,” Page said in an interview with MMA Fighting’s Mike Heck. “For me, I love that kind of stuff. I prefer that kind of banter because that’s me as well. I prefer that kind of banter and back-and-forth then some of the stuff that you see, a lot of these other fighters getting personal and disrespectful. This is very lighthearted, friendly, because he’s responding to stuff.”

If anyone can appreciate the effectiveness of a good gimmick, it’s Page. During his rise to stardom in Bellator, Page became known not just for his highlight-reel knockouts, but his memorable post-fight antics, which included his Pokemon homage following a brutal flying knee KO of Evangelista Santos, and Page breaking out the Infinity Gauntlet after a win at Bellator 200.

As much as Page respects Magomedov’s social media savvy, though, he’ll be even more respectful of his opponent’s skills on fight night. Magomedov is coming off of one of 2024’s best knockouts, a double spinning backfist of Armen Petrosyan at UFC 308.

“Exceptional,” Page said when asked to describe Magomedov’s UFC run so far. “Especially that last double spinning backfist KO. If you see some of his other clips when he was in the kickboxing, you can tell that is something that he has been doing or has done before or likes to throw. So it’s not like it was just a random thing.

“I think he’s super talented and even if I go in there and do what I know I can do, I think he’s still set to have an exciting career. He just needs to continue on the path that he’s on and just keep developing and growing. Sometimes a loss can help with that. Sometimes that one loss can make you readjust a few things and self-reflect and push forward even stronger.”

Page is moving up to middleweight for this contest, though he doesn’t plan to stick around in the division. However, he knows a win over the undefeated Magomedov will raise his stock regardless of what weight class he’s competing in.

And a win is what he expects to see in the headlines on Saturday night.

“I guess it’s shock or ‘MVP is that guy,’” Page said. “I feel like for some reason there’s always a question mark over me. If I do one thing correct, people are still like, ‘Yeah but maybe about this, maybe about that.’ I think this is a good fight, especially because I’m moving up. There’s so many things that technically work against me. He’s an undefeated fighter moving up in weight. He’s got that boogeyman type of energy.

“When I go out there and land that knockout, there’s a big stamp of approval from everybody. There’s not one person that can say anything else again.”