The Global Fight League (GFL) is gearing up for its first season.
The upstart MMA promotion—which hopes to launch a team format in the sport later this year—has announced that a “Virtual Draft” will take place on Friday night, broadcast for free on social media.
The upcoming live stream will reveal 120 fighters who will join GFL’s six-team format, which the promotion plans to officially debut by April.
The broadcast this weekend continues the sudden roll-out for a fight promotion with incredibly high hopes.
GFL was announced by founder Darren Owen late last year during an appearance on The Ariel Helwani Show. Owen revealed the plan for an MMA league focused on teams representing fighters, with a 50-50 revenue split between the company and its talent.
Instead of singular fighters competing throughout a season to become champion—like what PFL has done since 2018—teams of 20 are expected to represent cities from around the world. These groups will go head-to-head on fight cards, with winning fighters in one-on-one matchups scoring points for their squad. The team with the most points on a night walks away with a win.
In preparation for this week’s draft, GFL has built up a deep roster of more than 300 fighters. The signed athletes include a mix of recognizable ex-UFC and PFL names along with rising talents from the regional scene. Since only 120 fighters will be utilized as part of the season, the majority of those signed to the promotion who go undrafted later this week will be released from the promotion and free to fight elsewhere.
Those who get drafted on Friday will join one of six teams: London, Dubai, Sao Paulo, Miami, Los Angeles, or New York. Management roles for the teams have been given to prominent fighters including Wanderlei Silva, Cain Velasquez, and Lyoto Machida.
While GFL will soon finalize its inaugural roster, many other major details regarding the promotion have yet to be released. They aim for their 2025 season to kick off in roughly three months, although no events have been announced just yet. A broadcast deal for the season has yet to be revealed either.
GFL is bringing a product to the MMA market unlike any other currently available, as the concept of team MMA hasn’t been used for over a decade. Its most prominent past relevance appeared in the short-lived International Fight League (IFL), which had a two-and-a-half-year run that came to an end in 2008.
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