A little over a week after they officially announced a 31-fight lineup for the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, California, the Global Fight League’s (GFL) first-ever shows have been cancelled.
Word got out Wednesday evening that GFL’s May 24th and 25th events have both been scrapped, further delaying the promotion’s debut and calling into question if they will even get off the ground. News of the development was reported by Ariel Helwani, MMA Fighting, and many others.
GFL entered the new year with high hopes, wanting to become a competitor brand to the UFC and PFL while presenting MMA as a team sport. They signed 200 fighters to compete on six different teams through a live streamed draft, inking deals with dozens of former UFC, Bellator, PFL and ONE Championship figures. In some cases, fighters left their past deals with a promotion to join the GFL’s roster.
A solid fraction of their lineup were scheduled to compete next month as part of a two-night extravaganza. The first card was set to be headlined by Urijah Faber and former UFC champ Renan Barao in a trilogy fight. Past interim UFC titleholder Tony Ferguson would face internet star Dillon Danis in the second card’s main event.
An official broadcast had yet to be announced for the card, and tickets never went on sale.
Danis, who was expected to face Ferguson in the May 25th main event, expressed frustration after the bout was cancelled: “Bro I just wanna f****** fight,” he said on X.
While many seem down on the upstart promotion’s future, founder Darren Owen remains optimistic that they will be able to survive. In comments made to Uncrowned on Wednesday night, Owen said that he hopes to reschedule the event for later this summer in a different state.
“My main investor didn’t fulfill his April obligation which has caused a problem,” he said via text. “I’ll keep you posted but I believe we will be able work through it. I think we can make it happen for June.”
GFL initially announced that their inaugural season would launch by April 2025 before delaying the first events to a month later. With no events on their schedule, many are back to wondering what they had thought earlier this year: Will the promotion ever host an event?
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