Magny to donate $15k of purse to little girl’s medical fund
“I’m grateful for the opportunity to fight and blessed to have the opportunity to fight, but this girl is literally fighting for her life and I felt really compelled to make a donation.”
In a league where the average fighter competes twice a year, UFC welterweight Neil Magny fought five times in 2014 winning all, and tieing the record for most wins in a year. In 2015 he fought five times again, winning four, with three Performance Bonuses. In 2016 he slowed down, fighting three times, going 2-1.
Then he didn’t fight for nine months, due to a neck injury. Doctors said Magny would likely need spinal fusion to continue to fight. Instead, he suffered 24 weeks of tough physiotherapy, and fought on, going 1-1 in 2017, most recently decisioning Carlos Condit.
Now he fights Craig White in the co-main event of UFC Fight Night 130 in Liverpool, England on Sunday. His original opponent, Gunnar Nelson, dropped out with an injury, and Magny feared he might go without. And then former wrestling coach Leister Bowling passed on a story about a local girl, Presley Mae O’Doherty, 1, who is facing a terrible medical issue – the rare, recessive, and incredibly scary genetic disease, Spinal Muscular Atrophy.
No stranger to physical maladies, Magny was moved.
“If the UFC is able to find me an opponent for May 27th, I will donate $15,000 of my fight purse to help this little girl and her family get the care that she needs,” he wrote on his social network. https://www.gofundme.com/fighting-sma-with-presley-mae
And then he got the fight vs. White. And now he’s donating $15,000 to Presley Mae.
I started reading about this girl and her condition on her GoFundMe and I realized how much of a drastic situation her family are in, said Magny to E. Spencer Kyte for UFC.com. That’s what really inspired me to dig deep and make a bigger contribution than anything I’ve ever done in the past.
I’ve always contributed to things I’ve felt some kind of way about in the past – a charity or whatever – but it was always something comfortable for me, like, ‘Oh, I’ll give a hundred bucks.’ But I’m in a position where I’m able to help this person out and I should do it.
When I look at it, I’m grateful for the opportunity to fight and blessed to have the opportunity to fight, but this girl is literally fighting for her life and I felt really compelled to make a donation.
Last year at this exact time, I was sitting in a doctor’s office where my doctor is telling me, ‘Hey man, it’s not looking likely that you’ll fight and if you do, it won’t be without surgery.’ So to be in a position where I get to go out there and compete and I get to go out there and help this girl, why not take advantage of it? Why not act in the moment and be grateful for what I have and help someone else out at the same time?
Ray Borg is in Colorado right now with his newborn baby and seeing this little girl, it just hits way too close to home. I don’t know what it’s like to have a little child that needs that much medical care and how much stress it puts on the family, but if I’m able to help out in any way, I’m going to do so.
And then there’s the fight Sunday night.
At the end of the day, I know he’s going to come into this fight guns blazing,” said Magny. He has a chance to gain everything that he wants and it’s right in front of him, so that’s a guy that I can’t take lightly. … Right now, I have an opportunity to go out there and shine. It’s an opportunity for me to go out there and showcase the things that I’ve been working on in training and have the UFC and the fans be like, ‘Oh damn – that’s a side of Neil I haven’t seen before! I’m excited to see what this guy does next!’
Approximately $8,000 of the $20,000 goal for Presley Mae O’Doherty has raised. For more information and to donate,click here.
For more information about Anthony Borg’s son Anthony and to donate, click here.