Mark Madsen believes he has potential to beat everyone at lightweight

LOS ANGELES – With an established, world-class wrestling background, many believe Mark Madsen can become a top contender, and so does he.

The three-time Olympian — and 2016 silver medalist — in Greco-Roman wrestling, made a statement in his UFC debut in September, when he ran through Danilo Belluardo, taking him out in the first round.

And although he’s still young in the sport, the undefeated Madsen (9-0 MMA, 1-0 UFC) knows he can eventually be a problem for the UFC lightweight division.

“I believe I have the potential to beat everyone in the lightweight division,” Madsen said during Tuesday’s Dominance MMA media day. “But I’d like to take my time, develop. I’m pretty new in the sport. I retired wrestling 18 months ago, moved into MMA. I’ll take my time, develop and let’s see what the future will bring me.”

He got high billing for his UFC debut, a co-main event spot in his home country of Denmark. But Madsen is no stranger to the big stage, and lived up to the expectations, delivering in front of his home crowd.

“Well obviously competing on the world’s biggest MMA stage, UFC, is a pretty big deal right?” Madsen said. “This was my debut, I thought I was going to be fighting on the prelims. I got bumped up being a co-main event in front of 13,000 Danish fans. It was a lot of pressure, it was an exciting challenge and well I got to put it all the way up there, winning an Olympic medal and performing in front of a home crowd, the feeling is pretty much the same. It was very exciting.”

Madsen understands in order to take his career and training to the next level, he’d likely have to make the move to the United States. He already got American life, when he spent time training in Las Vegas at Xtreme Couture and the UFC Performance Institute, but says he’s not sure which gym he’ll end up calling home.

“I will be doing my camps here in the States so whenever I have a fight, I’ll be coming here,” Madsen said. “Wherever I get the best training, I mean the States has a bunch of great wrestlers, especially in MMA, top ranked so this is the place to develop my MMA wrestling.”

For more from Madsen, click on the video linked above.