PFL fighter and UFC veteran Don Madge announced his retirement after receiving a two-year suspension for testing positive for a banned substance, ending his career with an 11-5-1 record.
PFL fighter and UFC vet Don Madge just dropped the news of his retirement. But, funny enough, he wasn’t planning on stepping back into the octagon for quite some time anyway.
On Monday, USADA threw a curveball by announcing Madge’s two-year suspension. He tested positive for a banned substance under the PFL’s strict doping rules.
“Madge, 34, tested positive for an anabolic agent,” USADA revealed. This was from an in-competition sample collected at PFL 6 on June 28, 2024. They used a fancy test called IRMS (Isotope ratio mass spectrometry). It’s like a detective for steroids—figures out if they’re naturally produced or not.
“His two-year ban started on June 28, 2024,” they continued. But since Madge retired on Sept. 20, 2024, it’s been paused.
Looks like Madge is hanging up his gloves for good. If he ever gets the itch to fight again? He’d still have to finish that two-year timeout for doping.
With 17 fights under his belt, Madge went undefeated in his UFC stint with a 2-0 record. Later, he joined PFL and ended up with a 2-2 scorecard. His last bout was against Neiman Gracie in June—a unanimous decision loss. That’s when the sample that led to his suspension was taken.
If he sticks to retirement plans, Madge bows out with an 11-5-1 record. His journey began back in 2011 in South Africa, where it all started.