CHICAGO – It took a long time, but Don Mudge finally returned to the cage on Friday, and with some significant results.
Mudge (11-4-1) defeated gunman Brennan Ward (17-8) just 62 seconds into the shootout to open the PFL’s 2024 welterweight season. The break gave Madge six points in the standings, putting him at the top of the leaderboard.
Mudge was on the shelf for two years after losing to Roush Manfio in the 2022 season opener. Still, despite his immediate victory, Madge seemed unwilling to rest on his laurels.
“(I) feel incomplete,” Madge told MMA Junkie and other reporters backstage after the fight at Chicago’s Wintrust Arena. “There’s still a season left. It was a good win, but now I’m just thinking about the next game.”
Madge, a South African, signed with the UFC after winning the welterweight title with EFC in his home country. It took him a while to debut in the promotion, but he went 2-0 in the UFC and then missed a series of fights due to visa issues and injury before eventually signing with the PFL.
He said he expected Ward to come out swinging for the fences, and that’s exactly what happened.
“Realistically, I think he was trying to blackmail me and get into my head,” Madge said. “I expected him to try to take me down. I knew he was going to put pressure on me up front and try to get a quick knockout. But as soon as he decided he couldn’t do it, I could tell he was trying to drag me down. I was ready to wrestle him for 15 minutes if I had to.
However, Madge may have actually been hoping to finish Ward with his hands instead of a rear-naked choke. That certainly happened after the leather splattered. But Madge said he feels his move to welterweight has made him more powerful.
“One of the big decisions I made moving up to welterweight was that in the last four fights I was fighting at lightweight, it was getting harder and harder to lose weight and my punches felt harder and harder,” he said. Ta. “I felt like I lost a lot of strength during the match. When I hit guys, they didn’t move. But tonight when I hit him, he started staggering and his eyes were slanted. In hindsight, it was the best decision.”
Madge’s six points now have more impact than Murad Ramazanov’s six points because Madge finished faster. That may pay off down the road, but that depends on how the four-man playoffs go.
So Madge seems to think it might not be a problem.
“I think there’s a lot of tough competition. I think this is like one of the most stacked welterweight divisions that’s ever existed (in the PFL),” Mudge said. “But I feel like the stars are aligning for me. It’s been a tough two years, but I feel like the stars are aligning. This could be my year. I don’t think so.”
For more information on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s PFL 2024 Week 3 event hub.
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