With Wednesday’s news that a new fight league is coming our way in the form of the Global Fight League, the MMA world got a little more interesting. If you thought you’d seen the last of Alan Belcher’s Johnny Cash tattoo, think again. As of April 2025, Belcher and 299 of his counterparts will return under the GFL umbrella as part of its inaugural season.
Let’s address some burning questions about the new promotion:
The Global Fight League has come into existence, and it’s a team concept. There will be 120 athletes drafted across six teams, with 20 fighters on a team. Are you into this concept?
Petesy: Here’s the thing, man, I really want to be excited, but I can’t quite get there.
The team element of it, which has been unsuccessfully attempted in the past with the IFL, is not tickling me in the fashion I like. However, some of the things Darren Owen — the founder of the GFL — said to Ariel Helwani had some real merit.
The idea of revenue sharing with the fighters, the retirement fund and the insurance plan is all great. Yet, it’s a lot easier said than done. If the GFL manages to make all that happen as well as having a compelling product, then I will take my hat off to it (you can keep yours on, Chuck), but until then I shall remain skeptical.
Chuck: It’s interesting that we come around to a basic sport’s structure again and again in MMA. The idea of scheduling regular seasons and playoffs or tournament brackets, this time with teams, are all concepts the beer-drinking sports fan is used to.
Then again, there is something about the direct competition of a one-on-one fight that has translated for those who love combat. When all the stakes are in just the two combatants’ hands. I remember Max Kellerman first introducing to me to the thought that a fight was literal, that it was one man (or woman) trying to break the will of the other, without the use of a “ball” as a metaphor. I think this is why I believe cramming fighting into the normative echelon of “league” sports feels like trying to feed chess pieces into a Connect Four rack.
Maybe the caveman doesn’t want to graduate, Petesy! Maybe he likes killing for his dinner and doesn’t like the idea of playing on a “team.” So, though I think it’s refreshing to have a new promotion, I am skeptical about the concept.
We’ve seen things like this before. PFL does “seasons,” and the old IFL had “teams.” This almost feels like a hybrid of the two. Can this work, or is it bound to fail?
Chuck: You mentioned the revenue sharing and insurance, all admirable stuff that will play well against that cold palace that’s been built in Vegas. Still, I hate to be fatalistic, Petesy, but the GFL will be trying to buck a trend of failed ventures in the MMA space. We’ve seen money flow into the sport from gung-ho entrepreneurs before, and we’ve seen that same money go poof. There are indications the PFL isn’t exactly thriving with its global takeover right now, which could be active evidence.
The one thing that I wonder about is in this age of rapid communication, attention juggling and gambling, perhaps the team concept can translate better than it did in the day. It’s easy to imagine your degenerate friends texting about what they need to happen when Team X squares off with Team Y, isn’t it? “I’ve got a prop on an Alexei Oleynik winning this by Ezekiel choke! Come on, old man!”
If it’s a regular thing that can attract a large number of eyes, you never know …
Petesy: As we’ve both alluded to now, the IFL’s team concept did not work. In fact, a lot of things the IFL attempted did not work, all except those phat bars (that’s right, that’s “phat” with a “ph”) they laid down on the sweet rap track they composed — check out Ben Fowlkes’ article on that for more info.
Although the PFL has enjoyed many successes, we found ourselves debating whether the tournament format works directly after the finale last week. Even though brilliant stories like Dakota Ditcheva emerged from the event, it didn’t feel like it landed in the way it should, especially considering that final event should be a massive showcase night.
I think the PFL format works to some degree, but adding another promotion with a similar format may be overkill for a sport that really has one dominant force, the UFC.
Do MMA fans really want this kind of variation to the sport they enjoy?
Petesy: I’ll answer this question with a question, Chuck. This weekend the PFL Europe finale will happen in Lyon, France. There are some very compelling fighters on the card, including Abdoul “Lazy King” Abdouraguimov, who will fight in a featured main event outside of the tournament. As well as that, a fine British prospect in Lewis McGrillen will compete for tournament gold at bantamweight.
Do you know how many people have contacted me about that card? None.
That’s very unfortunate, because I think the PFL Europe venture has been successful. I enjoy the product myself, but I feel like it hasn’t stimulated the fan base in the way they’ve hoped. Not just yet, anyway.
I think it would take the GFL reinventing the tournament and team format in a way that we have never seen before for it to be a success, but I guess we’ll have to wait until April (hopefully) to see if it can make it happen.
Chuck: There is a certain mentality out there, the original kind of fan, who roots for a team and stays loyal to that team until death do us part. I’ve seen it at Mile High Stadium for many, many (many) years. Throating partisans painting their faces, wearing barrels over their otherwise naked bodies, sporting horse heads like they’re being cast in “The Godfather,” shouting obscenities at the heavens for the Broncos to catch a break.
But that’s established over generations. When little kids see their grandfather getting drunk and cussing his team, it rubs off. You inherit the colors of the hometown team and the quiet desperation of your forefathers.
But here’s the thing: If the GFL is smart it will follow the lead of pro football, in that it’ll make it interesting for casuals who don’t have a specific rooting interest. It could create a fantasy element to the league. One area of MMA that hasn’t flourished is fantasy. Get that idea to take in association with the GFL? I’ll say it again: You never know, Petesy …
There were a lot of big-name fighters announced on the initial roster, many of them veterans who are well past their primes. Who among the announced fighters feels like he can make a splash in the new promotion?
Chuck: I’ve seen all the jokes. That the GFL stands for “Grandfather Fight League,” mainly because so many on the initial roster are high-end quadragenarians. But c’mon. If a basketball league started a new venture to rival the NBA and announced an initial roster featuring names like Steve Nash, Lamar Odom, Brandon Roy, Earl Boykins and — boom! — Stephon freaking Marbury in the year 2025, basketball fans would wonder if it’s April 1.
Fighters shouldn’t be put out to pasture after their run in the UFC. They shouldn’t see Bareknuckle as the closest equivalent of a spotlight when it’s all said and done, either. But there’s a difference between having more options and having a well-monied enabler tempting you to continue on.
Think about this, Petesy. Fabricio Werdum, who upset Fedor Emelianenko in the black-and-white days of Strikeforce? He’s 47. Hector Lombard, who served in Bellator under the generalship of one Bjorn Rebney? He’s 46. Francisco Trinaldo? 46. Frank Mir, who fought at UFC 100 as the seasoned veteran against Brock Lesnar? He’s 45.
This is a mean bridge club getting together to play some smashface. What could go wrong?
Petesy: One of the biggest issues with the reveal is that one name in particular has me quite concerned about the optics of this moving forward.
On one hand, I’m looking forward to seeing Gegard Mousasi despite him being a bit longer in the tooth. Also, I’m excited to see Tyron Woodley compete again, and I think a younger pro like Pedro Carvalho could have a lot of success in this new venture.
One of my all-time legends of the sport, Wanderlei Silva, has also been announced on the new roster. Wanderlei is a big reason why I fell head over heels with MMA. My brother used to show me videos of him in Pride in the promotion’s formative years, and I was spellbound by “The Axe Murderer.” He proved to be my gateway drug to this wild industry, and I even got to train with him once as a fledgling white belt who had not anticipated eating his first leg kick from the great Pride champion … but that’s a story for another day.
In a later filing from the UFC’s class action lawsuit, Silva revealed fears that he had a traumatic brain injury and symptoms consistent with CTE, including depression, mood swings and irritability. I think it will be a very difficult watch for me if he does end up fighting in this promotion.
Call me negative all you want, but that was my biggest takeaway from the roster reveal.
