It’s going to be a big year for the upstart Global Fight League, which has been building up steam (and much needed capital) for its 2025 launch.
At the end of January, the team-based combat sports promotion will run a draft where fighters will be assigned to six city-based squads. Then, there’ll be a 15-event “season” between April and August followed by two “playoff” events and a “final” in November. The team event thing is more than a bit sus — those ancient souls who have circled this mortal coil for eons may remember IFL’s attempt at team mixed martial arts (MMA) — but the fighters attached to the project are interesting.
Among the elderly athletes listed on GFL’s website are Andrei Arlovski, Fabricio Werdum, Frank Mir and Wanderlei Silva — two of whom recently submitted affidavits to UFC’s antitrust lawsuit, claiming they suffered from, “symptoms common with TBI and CTE.” Werdum’s brain damage was so severe that Professional Fighters League (PFL) couldn’t get him licensed after a bad beatdown at the hands of Renan Ferreira in 2021 (watch it).
Those are the scary cases.
Perhaps these legends will end up being coaches or commentators, we don’t know. There’s much about GFL we don’t know at this moment … but we are learning that it’s willing to dust it up on X (formerly Twitter) from time to time.
Indeed, after announcing 41-year-old former UFC contender, Ovince Saint Preux, had signed with GFL, a fight fan tweeted, “More like Geriatric Fighting League.”
Grandpa Fight League is funnier and more catchy if you ask us.
But also, please be respectful to fighters who have given so much to the fans.
— Global Fight League (@mmagfl) December 27, 2024
“Grandpa Fight League is funnier and more catchy if you ask us,” the official Global Fight League account replied. “But also, please be respectful to fighters who have given so much to the fans.”
To us, there’s levels to this “respect” game.
There’s your casual sports s—t talk disrespect, which has been part of the game since games were invented. And then there’s the disrespect of putting aged veterans in cage matches with much younger opposition and building a brand off highlights of them getting massacred.
We’re not saying this is what GFL is doing because … GFL hasn’t done anything yet. But, we’re watching closely, and we’re hoping the organization is as fighter-forward and respectful as it has presented itself in the lead-up to its launch.
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