Sharaputdin Magomedov feels like if he beats Michael Page tomorrow, he would only be 3 wins away from a title shot. He’s not! He might be flying off the shelf now but the road to the title at 185 lbs is run by former champions, all of which want another shot and have a better resume to be able to demand it. The idea is ambitious and yet it is so silly that even UFC veteran Chael Sonnen simply laughed it off.
He took his mockery a step further by suggesting that if he were to return to the UFC today and string together three wins, he too would be fighting for a title. While Magomedov is an exciting prospect with a lot of hype, Sonnen’s comments would serve as a reality check. Winning three fights isn’t enough. Fighters need the right matchups, timing, and promotional backing to land a title shot.
The former middleweight contender laid it out as simply as he could and said,
“Everybody on the roster is three wins away from a title shot. MVP, who’s coming off of a loss and gonna be taking on Mr. Bullet, is three wins away from a title shot.”
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Shara will not just have to win 3 fights, these fights will also have to be against top-ranked and marketable opponents. And since nobody is handpicking them for him, he’s going to have a tough time getting them sitting at 14th on the rankings table. Besides, he reportedly can’t fight in the USA, at least in a few states.
A middleweight champion who can’t fight in the States would be an extremely difficult sell for the UFC. This is not to say that he won’t ever fight for the title but there’s just a lot of chips, all of which have to fall in a particular order. But the first to fall must be Page, who Sonnen warns, is a bigger threat than Shara realizes right now.
That wasn’t the only bit of advice that Sonnen gave ‘Bullet‘. In the same video, he also advised the Russian to come up with a different game plan.
Sonnen advises against striking with MVP
Shara is riding the momentum of a Knockout of the Year contender. His double-spinning back fist KO of Armen Petrosyan was a sight to behold. But that was a rare moment of catching lightning in a bottle, which will be a far more difficult task against someone like MVP. Page has built his career on the reputation of being one of the most unpredictable strikers in the sport.
However, this hasn’t stopped Shara from promising to stand up and trade with him. Interestingly, even MVP is convinced of it. During a conversation with Ariel Helwani, the British fighter claimed that after all the tough talk his Russian opponent has been talking, shooting for takedowns will lead to him never hearing the end of it.
“I think [Shara Bullet] is going to be stubborn to shoot because if he shoots he’s never going to hear the end of it for the rest of his career…
He’s going to be very stubborn, but, again, it’s different when you’re taking damage and you feel like you need to be safe.”… pic.twitter.com/yPNCon4gqm
— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) January 29, 2025
If Magomedov truly intends to stand toe-to-toe with MVP, he’ll need to bring something new to the table, or risk becoming just another highlight in Page’s already stacked reel of knockout finishes. Uncle Chael thinks so as well. Pointing at historical evidence of failures caused by trying to strike with MVP, Sonnen said,
“So if we’re going to take that and we’re going to use that history as a trajectory into the future—more importantly, this Saturday—he plans to stand with Michael ‘Venom’ Page. That has never worked out for a living creature, and many of them have had that idea, but it has never worked out.”
At this point, it doesn’t seem like either fighter’s game plan is going to change. So expect an electrifying duel, one that will hopefully end in a KO/TKO.
