Tyron Woodley is ready to help establish the Global Fight League as a major player in the MMA world.
GFL founder Darren Owen recently announced the promotion’s official launch is expected to come in April 2025. Along with the news, Owen revealed a lengthy 50-fighter list of signings who are set to compete, including Woodley and seven other former UFC champions.
As with any startup in MMA, there are always questions regarding sustainability — especially when luxurious financial promises are made. Woodley explained on Wednesday’s “The Ariel Helwani Show” why he’s not worried about the promotion’s future.
“I’m fully in with the organization,” Woodley said. “So many people called me [after Owens’ interview], asking me am I in, right? Because they know I’m not going to step to the plate and I’m not going to be a part of nothing that’s bulls**t. I’m not going to be a part of something that’s not going to pay me super handsomely or put me on a platform where the media and attention I gather from that is going to build my brand up. Everybody that probably signed, maybe 90% of them called me and made sure that they said, ‘Are you really in?’
“I like it because I like that the OGs get paid, man. Getting boxing money in MMA is a whole flex, and I’m just excited to be a part of the new wave. I’ve been wanting to get back in MMA. I really just kind of put [the sport] on pause, I kind of ghosted it for a minute, and it never really ghosted me when I needed it. So I’ve been making this journey back anyway, and it was a good opportunity. It has some Ric Flair drip with the digits on the payout, and then now it made sense for me.”
Woodley, 42, noted that his deal was sorted out quickly once approached by GFL. Unlike Kevin Lee and Anthony Pettis, who noted this past week they were under exclusive MMA contracts, Woodley said he’ll still be able to do freelance work in commentary or analysis elsewhere.
The ability to be more free-flowing was a big selling point for “The Chosen One.” Once he saw that was an option with this opportunity, he knew there was something to the GFL.
“I like that I have that freedom because I feel like big moments and big fights, I want to cover [them], it don’t matter the promotion,” Woodley said. “So I had to make sure that was ironed out. I like the fact that when I told him what I needed to make [financially], they didn’t try to do a whole bunch of negotiation, because I’m too far in the game for you to be trying to negotiate with me and play games when you just started, right?
“That was the first thing that made me take it serious. There was no back and forth when I said, ‘This is what it’s going to cost for me to put on these four-ounce gloves and bust some nuggets up.’ This is what they gave out. And also just the thought process of the revenue share [model] and the different branding in a way that we can get it closer to some of these other sports we watch.”
GFL’s team-based season format may remind longtime MMA fans of the old-school IFL days. The now-defunct promotion offered a similar look, pitting squads of fighters against each other before inevitably fizzling out. In other instances, promotions like Affliction offered big paydays to fighters that ultimately led to its downfall.
From his seat on the sidelines, Woodley acknowledges the GFL’s talent list could be problematic as the promotion barrels full-bore into 2025.
“If I was a promoter of the organization, I may have some concern just because the roster, you can see how many — [Owens] sent me a couple more [names] yesterday that’s not even on that list that you guys have,” Woodley said. “I think it’s four or five more world champions. When I look at that, it doesn’t make me fearful because I’m not the promoter. All I can do is do my best, go train my ass off, bring as much value to the promotion I can bring, talk about it, let everybody know how they can watch it.
“We still got to educate. MMA is still young as hell. It’s under 40 years old. We still got to continue to educate the fans on what the sport is and what they [are] even watching.
“I don’t have any concerns,” he continued. “I’m at the part of my career where I’m going to let people see and I’m going to remind them of who I am. I feel like that’s important for myself, and I think it’s important for my fans that was with me for all those years that they see me go out and show them that this is why we like Tyron, but this is why we didn’t like Tyron. Either way it goes, I’m going to give them something to remember.”
Come March 2025, four full years will have passed since Woodley last fought in MMA. The former UFC welterweight champion rides a four-fight losing streak that dates back to his title reign, with his last win coming in a successful defense against Darren Till in September 2018. Woodley’s lone competitions post-UFC came in 2021 for a two-match boxing rivalry with Jake Paul. Unfortunately for Woodley, he lost both matches — first via split decision, then in a fifth-round knockout.
On the positive side, Woodley has a lot of exciting possibilities on the GFL roster. He’s been consistently hopeful to land a notable name for a potential post-UFC MMA fight. For his GFL debut, he’s not ready to share the name of his opponent, but he’s happy to see it’s on tap.
“It’ll be a big fight,” Woodley said. “It’s a fight that I should have had in the UFC that I didn’t. I actually spoke about having this fight. People will be able to do their research. I actually spoke about having this fight, and then people were acting like I was cap, like it was never a fight, like I was just making it up, even though I was offered the fight. So, that fight can take place.
“It’s some fights that I didn’t even expect, but I’m like, ‘Hell, yeah. If you want to let me take this lunch money right quick to this buster, I would kindly beat his ass. I’m tired of hearing him anyway.’ So there’s a couple of those in there too, so I’m excited. That kind of stuff makes me excited.”
Ultimately, Woodley feels he’s getting the chance to make up for some lost time. The Missouri native hoped to set up some bigger dream-type pairings during his UFC run. That aspect of Woodley’s reign never came to fruition, but it’s a chapter that can now be written in GFL.
“I never really got an opportunity to fight superfights when I was in the UFC,” Woodley said. “I wanted to so bad, and I think that’s what me and the brass kind of brushed heads a couple times [about] because I was just begging for the [Michael] Bisping fight, begging for the ‘GSP’ [Georges St-Pierre] fight, begging for Nate [Diaz], Nick [Diaz], Conor [McGregor].
“It was all guys that was around my time, around my weight, and they all just didn’t want to fight. You can’t make people fight that don’t want to fight. But in this situation, I feel like you’ll see a couple guys that sign that are going to really, really raise your eyebrows. That’s probably who I’m going to end up fighting.”
