Mailbag: OK, what exactly is going on with GFL? Plus, Paul Hughes and the Fight of the Year!
This past weekend was a rare off week for the UFC, but fortunately, the rest of the combat sports world did its part to fill the void, with both PFL and BKFC hosting events, and even the new kid on the block, Global Fight League, got in on the fun with their promotional âdraftâ on Friday. So, letâs talk about a surprisingly eventful weekend in the world of fist-fighting.
What is a maximum non-zero number of events you think GFL will run?
â Mookie Alexander (@mookiealexander) January 25, 2025
âWhat is a maximum non-zero number of events you think GFL will run?â
Oh, GFL. Where do I begin?
On Friday, the GFL held itâs inaugural âdraft,â with the six teams each selecting 20 fighters to participate in the upcoming season. Except that is not at all what happened. We were promised a draft and what we got a shambolic disaster of nearly unparalleled proportions.
First off, this was not a draft. The âfirst overall pickâ was Tyron Woodley, to the Dubai team and there is not a sane person in the world who would draft Woodley first overall. Heâs 42 years old and has lost six fights in a row! That immediately tipped the hand that this wasnât a real draft and Sage Northcutt going second removed all doubt. These six teams were clearly established beforehand and the draft and this was simply a marketing gimmick. That immediately left a bad taste in my mouth.
On top of that, this was one of the most shoddily produced things Iâve ever seen. The âdraftâ only lasted four rounds before they just revealed the full teams, and even then they constantly screwed things up. Yoel Romero was âdraftedâ in the third round, but Darren Owenâs pre-recorded message left that out, so Mike Goldberg mentioned it the viewers, except five minutes later they finally played a video package of Jon Jones announcing the Romero pick! That is inconceivably bad production, and it wasnât the only instance. After they abandoned the fake draft entirely, they still ran a clip of Christian McCaffrey announcing a pick from the 12th round, because why not?
All of it was made worse by bringing out the ghosts of MMA past to serve as the panel for this farce. Itâs not 2010 so why is your A-Team Robin Black, Mike Goldberg, and Brendan Schaub? Schaub repeatedly called guys like Kevin Lee and Sage Northcutt âprospects,â Black pretended Gegard Mousasi was still relevant, and Goldberg waxed poetic about the UFC and all these old-ass fighters he knows. Who was this for?!
And of course thereâs the issues with the fighters themselves. The average fighter age is nearly 36 years old and a lot of these people frankly shouldnât be fighting anymore. Heck, a good portion of the fighters are/were retired before this came along. That does not exactly breed confidence.
But the worst part of all of this was what happened after. There have been plenty of rumors about GFL signing fighters who were already under contract or didnât agree to sign, but following the âdraftâ a lot more specific instances came to light. Rashad Evans was drafted by Los Angeles and then immediately denied he was participating, leading to GFL removing him from its graphics.
There is plenty more I could criticize about the GFL draft, but if I did so this would be a 10,000-word mailbag, and no one wants that. Suffice it to say, Friday night removed all doubt from me that the GFL is not a serious organization and I will frankly be surprised if they hold any events whatsoever. And if they do, I strongly encourage every fighter to get paid up front.
One more GFL thing
âWhen you think of the future of fighting, 45 yr old Uriah Faber is the first thing that comes to mind right? What does success look like for The GFL (Geriatric Fight League)?â
I spent an inordinate amount of time thinking about GFL during the travesty of a launch that was the GFL draft and honestly, I still donât know what this is. When Darren Owen first announced it I thought, âOK, theyâre remaking the IFL, which wonât work but thatâs a thing that happens in MMA promotion all the time.â Now, I simply do not believe that to be true.
I donât know what the GFL is, but itâs not a real fight promotion. So I came up with a few alternatives that make more sense to me than this being an MMA promotion with serious aspirations for success, and ordered them from most to least likely, in my opinion (for the sake of being optimistic, Iâm choosing to view whatever the PFL is as an honest business instead of a grift but perhaps Iâm being too optimistic).
This is not an actual fight promotion, but an elaborate marketing scheme for an MMA video game. Back before EA made the UFC games, there was a generic MMA game, and this is trying to do something similar, perhaps in a mobile version.
This is not an actual fight promotion, but an elaborate marketing scheme for a cryptocurrency or NFT collection.
This is an elaborate scientific experiment to determine just how capable AI currently is at project management. Instead of having a CEO make decisions, Owen just types stuff into ChatGPT and goes with what it says. Thatâs how you get the commentary booth for the draft.
Owen believes the most important part of fight promotion is having a theme song, and once he got that done, he figured the rest would just fall into place.
This is a false flag operation from Donn Davis and the PFL to make their decisions and promotion look good in comparison.
So, to answer the question, in scenarios 1-4, success is not losing millions of dollars and ending up in jail for failure to pay debts. For scenario 5, this is already a massive triumph.
Paul Hughes and the Fight of the Year
âHow do you think Paul Hughes would fare in the UFC?â
Really, really well.
In case you missed it, over in PFL on Saturday, Paul Hughes and Usman Nurmagomedov put on the Fight of the Year thus far, with Usman eking out a majority decision win that ruffled a lot of feathers. I donât think the decision qualifies as a robbery (I scored it a draw with the point deduction in Round 3) but it is one of those decisions where Nurmagomedov may have won the MMA bout but Hughes won the fight. He is certainly the one people were talking about in the aftermath, in part because of his awesome Robbie Lawler-esque picture staring down Nurmagomedov.
Hughes was a big free agent signing last year when PFL landed him and he had a bit of a breakout with his win over A.J. McKee, but this was truly the Irishmanâs coming out party. Nurmagomedov is one of the 10 best lightweights on Earth at the moment and Hughes gave him all he could handle and arguably won the fight. He showed incredible takedown defense and scrambling ability, terrific cardio and durability, and a mean streak which all the best fighters have. This is a young man who was born to scrap and he just proved he can against one of the best in his division.
I see no reason to think Hughes wouldnât have a ton of success if he suddenly jumped into the deep end of the UFCâs lightweight division tomorrow (and same for Nurmagomedov). Lightweight is the best and deepest division in the sport but the names at the top of it are all on their very last legs, and Hughes would be in prime position to jump in and make noise right away.
The problem at lightweight is always, can you even get the opportunity? To get a shot at the top 15, lightweights have to put together incredibly impressive runs, and while I like Hughesâs chances against a lot of 155ers, itâs by no means a guarantee. Anyone in the top 30 can beat anyone else in the top 30. But for Hughes, with his name already ringing out, he might get an immediate shot at a top name and itâs 50/50 or better he can get the win and then be a made man. I canât wait to see it in a few years.
PFL
Outside of booking a rematch of the main event in Belfast what can pfl do to capitalize on what feels like legit momentum and excitement? Also how badly did ufc fumble by not signing Paul Hughes when they had the chance? Or does it not matter since he will end up there eventually
â Nathan Trussell (@alzaidis_shoes) January 26, 2025
âOutside of booking a rematch of the main event in Belfast what can pfl do to capitalize on what feels like legit momentum and excitement?â
I did a post-fight show for this event and said that not only was Nurmagomedov vs. Hughes the Fight of the Year, it was also the greatest fight in PFL history. I stand by that. By my estimation, this is the single biggest thing PFL has ever done and itâs critical they build off of it.
Speaking frankly, PFL does not draw a ton of interest. Even the championships, where $1 million checks are handed out, frequently go over like a lead balloon. This was different. I donât know if it was just this particular matchup and the build to it, but people cared about PFL in a way that I havenât seen since the night Kayla Harrison lost. Even before the main event, people were interested, and were tuning in, and then when they did, they got to see the best fight of the year, with all the drama that ensued. It would be a stretch to say this is the PFLâs Ultimate Fighter Finale moment, but I donât know, maybe it could be.
The thing is, PFL needs to be able to build off this. There have been various moments where PFL gained some sort of momentum and then followed it up with garbo heavyweight fights in the season format. Donât do that. Please. Iâm begging.
If Donn Davis calls me up and says, âHey, Jed, youâre the PFL Minister of Fun. How can we make the most out of this good energy?â Iâm telling him two things. First, book the rematch for Belfast. Book it now. Get the deal done for late Spring or early Summer, and give this a full court promotional press. Iâm talking world tour, late night TV shows, the works. You probably canât get Usman on Jimmy Fallon, but maybe you can get Paul Hughes. Make sure people know weâre doing this again, in Belfast, and donât let them forget how great the fight was. Thatâs job No. 1.
Job No. 2 is booking your next event. Right now the next thing I see on the PFL docket is the start of its tournament series in April. Unacceptable. There are two UFC APEX events in March. Dakota Ditcheva needs to be fighting somebody, anybody on one of those dates, preferably in England.
The simple fact is that PFL probably canât succeed anyway. The UFC has astonishing, overwhelming monopsony power in the MMA marketplace. But this could be a real spark for PFL to actually make some noise in a meaningful way. I hope they donât fumble it because we need other legitimate MMA organizations for fighters to have as options.
Thanks for reading and thanks to everyone who sent in tweets (Xs?)! Do you have any burning questions about things at least somewhat related to combat sports? Then youâre in luck because you can send your tweets to me, @JedKMeshew, and I will answer my favorite ones! It doesnât matter if theyâre topical or insane, just so long as they are good. Thanks again, and see yâall next week.
