The Global Fight League (GFL) recently announced a huge number of additions to its roster ahead of the promotion’s full launch in 2025. Many of the names are familiar to fight fans as a whole host of former UFC fighters, veterans and champions are available to be drafted before the GFL’s team-based season format gets underway.
Despite this being a major announcement in the MMA landscape, the reaction from a lot of fans wasn’t overly positive because many of the top names that have come to terms with the GFL are fighters that are either in the final years of their careers or seen to be past their primes. Given his previous comments on other promotions that have looked to change the MMA landscape, it’s not surprising that UFC boss Dana White was sceptical to say the least.
Rather than criticizing the GFL, White welcomed them to come and try their hand at mixed martial arts during his post-fight press conference in Tampa this past weekend. With a smirk on his face, he is happy to see how other promotions will attempt to compete and do things differently.
“I actually don’t know anything about it. I saw this all the time, I welcome everybody. Listen, there’s no barrier to get into this sport. I hear a lot of people saying that we ‘don’t do this right’ or we ‘don’t do that right’. Come on in everybody, dive in.”
Though White said that he wasn’t familiar with the promotion’s recent announcement, after having a list of some of the top signings read out to him, he gave his response to hearing some of the names that GFL has acquired. There was a particular emphasis places on the inclusion of Wanderlei Silva who at 48-years old, hasn’t fought since he departed the UFC in 2013 and returned to fight twice in Bellator in 2017 and 2018.
“Fascinating. I’ll believe it when I see it.”