28-year-old UK fighter Caolan Loughran stirred up the MMA world after UFC 303 by sharing whispers from his teammates about an alleged sparring session between Khamzat Chimaev and Michael ‘Venom’ Page. According to the rumor mill, the flashy striker got the better of the undefeated star during their exchange—a claim that sent fans into a frenzy. But what did the surging 135fer said?

“F–k fighting MVP, he’s a nightmare. Until you have him in front of you, you haven’t sparred or trained with someone like him. I’ll give you a little inside fu—ng scoop. I shouldn’t say it but when I was in Dubai, MVP was sparring with Khamzat and there were 4-5 lads watching him spar with Khamzat and he was battering Khamzat. He couldn’t get him down, haven’t seen footwork like that. He is a tricky tricky operator.” Loughran stated in an exclusive interview with Inside Fighting.

However, Page wasted no time shutting down the rumors. The former Bellator standout dismissed the speculation as “nonsense,” making it clear that the supposed sparring session never happened the way it was being portrayed. While it’s true that Chimaev and Page trained together last year in Borz’s new home country, the United Arab Emirates, their time in the gym didn’t include a sparring match. In fact, the two even collaborated on a short social media video, which quickly won over fans.

But when it comes to actual sparring? Page clarified that he never stepped into the cage with Chimaev. Instead, it was his London Shootfighters teammate, Norbert Növényi Jr., who went toe-to-toe with the undefeated UFC star—and according to Page, Növényi gave Chimaev a serious run for his money.

“I’ll kill that [rumor] now. I’ll kill that now… That’s nonsense. I didn’t even get to spar him. He ended up sparring my boy Norbert Novenyi [Jr.],” Michael ‘Venom’ Page revealed on the Overdogs Podcast. “He’s actually a free agent now. He’s soon going to be in the UFC. Great young up-and-coming fighter. Norbert gave him a little back-and-forth round. They had their little tense sparring sessions.”

On the other hand, ‘MVP’ wasn’t just sitting on the sidelines—he had his own sparring sessions, just not with Chimaev. According to Page, he put in work against other fighters during training and even got the better of them. He believes the confusion stemmed from the fact that both he and Norbert Növényi Jr. were sparring around the same time. Since Page is the more recognizable name as a UFC fighter, many assumed it was him who got the better of Chimaev in training, when in reality, it was his teammate who had the exchange with Borz.

“I think because we came as a team, he’s from my team, and I sparred with a couple of other guys and I was kind of having fun, showing my flair and stuff. Like I said, Chinese whispers. It got mixed. I had nothing to do with that,” Michael ‘Venom’ Page added.

The London Shootfighters star also painted a picture of what witnessing Khamzat Chimaev was like in training. Guess what? Michael ‘Venom’ Page spoke very highly of his middleweight rival.

Khamzat Chimaev’s ‘talent’ amazed Michael ‘Venom’ Page

Fans and popular UFC figures have often come across training footage of Khamzat Chimaev. It is safe to say that he absolutely dominates his sparring partners. He even went toe-to-toe with a bunch of wrestlers from the Russian Greco-Roman team. This in turn affirmed what fans already thought about his talent. As such, Michael ‘Venom’ Page had the same thing to say about Chimaev when he saw him training, claiming that the Chechen-born star blew his mind away with how good he was in the wrestling department.

“I got to see him in his element… I saw how super talented this guy is,” ‘MVP’ added. “I love seeing people because, for me, he’s talented in a completely different area to me and I just appreciate it. It gave me inspiration to go back and kind of really work on what I need to work on.”

Well, it seems like Michael ‘Venom’ Page and Khamzat Chimaev are on cordial terms. But that can change in the future if both fighters find themselves in each other’s crosshairs. The former Bellator star is looking to fix the holes in his game after training with the undefeated fighter. So it remains to be seen how things pan out in the future. Let us know your thoughts in the comments down below.