Don
Madge doesn’t dread fight week anymore.
Advertisement
When he began his career as a lightweight, that wasn’t necessarily
the case for the South Africa native, who will face Neiman
Gracie at
PFL 6 in a regular season bout at welterweight on Friday night.
After scoring a first-round submission of Brennan
Ward on April 19, Madge sits atop the 170-pound standings
heading into the second regular season event.
“Ah man, the weight cuts to the lightweight were like savage,”
Madge said during a PFL media day. “I’ve kind of spoken about it
now that I’ve made the move up, but I would do maybe [26 to 28
pounds] in a week, you know, like, stupid amounts… But yeah man,
the move up to welterweight [was] something that I’ve been like
juggling with for a long time. I just never felt like I needed to
do it because I was still winning at lightweight.
“Especially for this the season format, we fight so often that
doing those gigantic weight cuts just don’t make any sense. I feel
incredible at welterweight, my body’s carrying the weight well. I
definitely don’t feel undersized against any other guys, so this is
definitely where I’m going to be staying.”
While the rigors of competing multiple times in a season make
extreme weight cutting even more difficult, Madge believes there’s
something to be said for feeling healthy no matter what format a
fighter competes in.
“I think a lot of fighters could possibly jump up a division — and
a lot of fighters do — and they do a lot better,” Madge said. “And
it’s because of that feeling healthy, being able to like feel your
training camps and feel your fight weeks and not walk around like a
skeleton and a zombie all day.
“It’s made a huge difference to me and even just like my enjoyment
of fight week — usually I f—king hate it, but I’ve been enjoying it
a lot now, so I’m really, really happy with the decision I
made.”
The only thing that could make fight week even more enjoyable is a
victory over Gracie. Madge won’t deny that there’s an added appeal
to beating someone with that prestigious name.
“Yeah, I mean, it’s incredible. That’s actually why I was happy
with the matchup,” Madge said. “Obviously stylistically I think it
makes a really good matchup for me but also just the legacy parts
of being that it’s the family that started MMA, basically. So to be
able to step in the cage with him and share that moment with each
other I think will be incredible.”