It’s been years in the making, undergone a name change, and still has its doubters – but the Global Fight League has announced its draft, and unveiled a number of former UFC stars it has reportedly signed.
First revealed by GFL Founder Darren Owen on Uncrowned’s The Ariel Helwani Show, the GFL has signed the likes of Junior Dos Santos, Fabricio Werdum, Frank Mir, Greg Hardy, and Andrei Arlovski to its heavyweight division alone. If that sounds like the UFC heavyweight division circa the late-2000s/early 2010s, well, it’s really only missing Cain Velasquez.
Other names announced by the GFL include Wanderlei Silva, Gegard Mousasi, Alexander Gustafsson, Kevin Lee, Thiago Santos, Marlon Moraes, Jeremy Stephens, Lance Palmer, Bubba Jenkins, Hector Lombard, Tyron Woodley, Anthony Pettis and even Rousimar Phalares.
While the initial batch of names might seem a bit long in the tooth, the roster is far from complete. The league has announced a schedule of 15 events from April to August, 2025 and a three-event playoff. A roster of 300 will see 120 names drafted across six teams. 20 fighters per team will be subdivided by 10 weight classes.
Those weight classes, while carrying familiar names, have been modified. Women’s strawweight will allow fighters to come in at 120lbs, and flyweight 130. The light heavyweight limit will be 225lbs, while heavyweight will cap off, as it historically has, at 265lbs.
The league, as was previously reported, intends to have a 50/50 revenue share with fighters. Per Owen, “Athletes get paid either or — whatever is greater — their guaranteed amount or their revenue share percentage. So someone might have a $50,000 guaranteed purse and they earn 1% revenue share, but if there’s $10 million in that revenue pool for that event, then they’re going to receive $100,000 instead of what they were thinking was $50,000.”
Fighter pay will see 8% put towards a retirement fund, and 2% put into health insurance.
The Global Fight League draft date is set for January 24, 2025. In its inaugural season, six cities will have teams competing in the league. None of those locations have been announced.
