Don Mudge no longer dreads game week.
That wasn’t always the case for the South African who began his career at lightweight, where he faces Neiman Gracie on Friday night in a regular-season welterweight bout at PFL 6. Coming off a first-round submission win over Brennan Ward on April 19, Mudge sits atop the 170-pound rankings heading into his second regular-season bout.
“The lightweight cut was brutal,” Mudge said at PFL media day. “I’ve spoken about it as I’ve been promoted, but maybe [26 to 28
pounds] That’s a ridiculous amount of money for one week… but moving up to welterweight [was] It’s something I’ve been juggling for a long time, I just never felt the need to do it because I was still winning at lightweight.
“Especially with this season’s format, there’s so many fights, so a big weight cut doesn’t make sense. I’m in great shape at welterweight, I’m holding up the weight well, and I don’t feel I’m inferior to any of the other fighters, so I’m definitely going to stay in this division.”
The rigors of competing multiple times in a season make extreme weight cutting even more difficult, but Mudge believes it’s important for fighters to feel healthy no matter what format they compete in.
“I think a lot of fighters would be happy to move up a weight class, and a lot of fighters do, and they’re doing a lot better,” Mudge said. “It’s because they feel healthy, they get a feel for training camp and fight week, and they’re not walking around like a skeleton or a zombie all day.”
“It’s been a big change for me and it’s changed how I enjoy match week. Normally I hate matches but now I really enjoy them so I’m really happy with the decision I made.”
The only thing that could make fight week even more enjoyable would be a win over Gracie, and Mudge won’t deny that there would be an added allure to a win against an opponent with that prestigious name.
“Yeah, it’s incredible, so I’m happy about the fight,” Mudge said. “Obviously, stylistically it’s going to be a great match for me, but it’s also part of the tradition of being a family that basically started in MMA, so I think it’s incredible to get in the cage with him and share that moment with each other.”
