SOUTH Africa’s former UFC lightweight star and current PFL welterweight top contender Don Madge is excited to test his mettle against a member of the famed Gracie family in South Dakota tonight.
Madge sits atop the PFL welterweight division with six points after earning full points with a submission win over the US’s Brennan Ward via rear-naked choke in the first round of their fight at PFL 3: Regular Season earlier this year.
Madge will now compete in his third Professional Fighter’s League fight this evening against Brazilian mixed martial artist Neiman Gracie in their PFL 6: Regular Season match-up at the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls.
With it being the second half of the season, the results from this event will determine which featherweights and welterweights head into the 2024 PFL Play-offs. After earning full points in his last fight, Madge needs a win of any kind to secure his play-off berth and take one step closer to that coveted PFL World Championship and $1 million prize.
Neiman Gracie (Stambowsky) is a fourth-generation Gracie family member and great-grandson of Gracie jiu-jitsu (Brazilian jujitsu) founder Carlos Gracie, the older brother of Hélio Gracie.
The Gracie family are pioneers of combat sport and, more specifically, Jiu Jitsu and, often referred to as part-founders of mixed martial arts.
The name runs deep across the combat sports world, and it was Royce Gracie (son of Hélio) who won the very first UFC event before going on to take UFC 2 and UFC 4 before the rest of his family and the world latched onto BJJ (Brazilian jujitsu), a combat system used worldwide today.
“It’s incredible, man! That is why I was happy with the match-up,” said Madge.
“Stylistically it makes a good match-up for me.”
On paper, Madge is the more well-rounded athlete with a strong stand-up game backed by high-level wrestling and jujitsu.
“But also, just the legacy, I am fighting an athlete whose family ‘started’ MMA. So to be able to step into the cage with him (Neiman) and share that moment, I think will be incredible, and like you say, it’s something I can look back on and one day tell people and my kids that I fought one of the original family members of this whole thing that we all do, and to beat one of them will be even better,” said Madge with a chuckle.
Despite being a former Bellator title contender, Gracie is in a win-or-go-home scenario.
The Brazilian jujitsu practitioner, with nine of his 12 wins coming via submission, is battling to find momentum.
Earlier this year, in his first appearance inside the PFL smart cage, he suffered a unanimous decision loss to Japan-born Goiti Yamauchi.
He now has it all to fight for and will have his hands full against the “Magic Man” who looked impressive against Ward after two years away from the cage.
For Madge, that win was a great bounce back after losing via a third-round TKO to Raush Manfio after dominating the fight in the 2023 Regular Season.
The Fight Night show will start at 11.30pm tonight, and the card will be available on SuperSport.
