GFL founder reacts to draft results leak, Rashad Evans situation; likes the idea of Tony Ferguson vs. Dillon Danis

Yahoo

28-01-2025

For better or worse, the Global Fight League (GFL) is already making plenty of noise.
MMA's newest promotion hopes to break through with a team-based format featuring six global GFL teams consisting of 120 total fighters. To organize the groups, GFL held its first-ever "draft" this past Friday. Unfortunately, the operation didn't go as smoothly as planned — a production mishap revealed the entire draft board of teams and their fighters mere minutes before the GFL's live stream launched.
Although that wasn't the plan, GFL founder Darren Owen explained Tuesday on Uncrowned's "The Ariel Helwani Show" that he believes the mistake may have actually been better for viewership.
"It's hard to know exactly what happened and why, and what it was," Owen said. "Obviously we had a lot going on right before we were about to go live. So I guess one of the streams went live early, about five minutes earlier than they should have, and they were still kind of testing and kind of going through some different things. So yeah, one of the graphics that got showed was, theoretically, the draft board.
"I don't know ultimately if it was a bad thing, because based on that we were trending on X, the No. 1 topic in the United States that evening. We trended on Google over the weekend. So was it a blessing in disguise that maybe, hey, this got leaked. It wasn't the plan, but it happened. You just deal with it and move forward."
The most telling thing about the unintentional board leak was that the draft wasn't actually draft at all. Teams were already established, and this was just the promotion's way of sharing them.
This was further evidenced when the pick announcements were dropped after the fourth round as the stream approached its three-hour mark.
"Absolutely, it was," Owen acknowledged when asked if the draft was predetermined. "There's a lot that went into that production of it. So the reality is I consulted with the coaches, the managers, who they wanted on their team, what made sense based on — we're stacking the deck. That's the reality of this thing. You said it, everyone said it — we all want to make sure we get the fights we want to see. So due to the fact, too, we also own and operate all the teams ourselves — so making trades, doing the logical thing to create the matchups that people want to see, we'll get creative with it.
"So any of the fighters who are upset about, 'Oh, why didn't you pick me, coach or manager,' you can blame me. Ultimately, I kind of had final say. We did get all the feedback and we had planned on going live picks one through 120, [but] the duration that would have taken was significantly longer than I think anyone wanted to kind of tune in for, so we kind of accelerated things. But yeah, ultimately, we wanted to put the right fighters on the right teams to also create the logical matchups."
At a glance, the roster appears perfectly customized to best suit fighters from the regions where specific teams are based. For example, Team Dubai, led by AKA's Javier Mendez and Cain Velasquez, consists of several fighters from Dagestan, countries nearby, or the AKA gym itself. Likewise, Owen said ATT fighters in south Florida sought to be on Team Miami and Brazilians pushed for Team Sao Paulo.
Upon its public unveiling in December, GFL immediately stood out, promising a roster that featured several notable UFC veterans and former champions. Friday's draft stream proved that several of those names are indeed involved, but some question marks still follow others.
Former UFC light heavyweight champion Rashad Evans was one in particular who spoke out after the draft, claiming he isn't part of GFL and is planning to rematch Quinton "Rampage" Jackson in boxing.
Despite the confusion, Owen believes Evans could still enter the GFL when it launches in April.
"We'll see," Owen said. "[Evans' manager] Ali [Abdelaziz] was like — literally the day before the draft, I'm like, 'Ali, we're good to put him in?' He's like, 'Yes, brother; yes, brother. We're good to put him in.' So we put him in, and Rashad obviously came out afterward and said, 'Hey, I didn't sign.' But I think if you look at the history of drafts, are any of those athletes signed before they get drafted to the team? No.
"There's a lot of examples of things that happen post-draft, and this is just a similar format to that."
After setting up its six team rosters, broadcast deals appear to be GFL's next order of business. Owen is confident a deal will be pinned down before April. Owen's approach is to "fill the NFL void," he said, and he expects GFL to offer a combination of pay-per-view and free-to-watch events, potentially even holding three events in two days on some weekends.
"Obviously these athletes we have are proven pay-per-view draws and have a giant fan base," Owen said. "I'll say this, if someone really comes to the table with a deal that makes all the sense for us that we don't need to do pay-per-view, then we won't do pay-per-view. They also kind of like the idea of pay-per-view based on the metrics, the volume of talent we have, their following that is involved in this.
"We aren't getting so much pushback on, 'Hey, we don't like the pay-per-view model.' They're like, 'Hey, we kind of like this model, let's put it behind a paywall. Let's price it accordingly based on our countries around the world.'
"It'll probably be a bit of a hybrid based on where we go and who with, and who has what rights and what territory," he concluded.
The age of GFL's roster is one glaring concern, with an average age of 36. However, Owen insists that most MMA legends will fight other legends or veterans, while prospects will largely fight prospects to keep a fine balance.
Specifically in the lightweight or welterweight divisions, Owen already has some matchups in mind. The unexpected arrival of one-time UFC interim lightweight champion Tony Ferguson brings a matchmaking challenge after Ferguson's eight straight UFC losses. Online provocateur Dillon Danis was floated as an option for Ferguson during the GFL draft, and Owen is a fan of the pairing.
"The nice thing is, they don't have the ability to decline," Owen said. "We can make the fights that people want to see, and we're listening to everybody, right? Like Tony Ferguson, Dillon Danis — that may be something that will come to fruition. So we're down to make the fights. I'm a diehard MMA fan, I love the sport more than anything. I've always kind of prided myself on making exciting matchups, but also making matchups that people actually want to see. That's first and foremost what we're going to do, is deliver the real fights that people want.
"[Danis] was one of the harder ones to get over the finish line. There were a few [fighters] that took a little bit more effort. It wasn't like he was asking for anything weird or wild or anything like that — overall, good to deal with. So no real hiccups or issues there. Some people, you just sent the agreement over, and within an hour it's signed and returned back to you. Others have, 'Hey, we just want to make sure the language on this or that.' Obviously, he rides the line pretty hard in his promoting and the things he does and says, so we had to take out some language that allowed him to be who he is. And we're fine with doing that. There's obviously a line we don't want crossed and we're not expecting him to cross any lines. But some of the language in the contracts makes it very respectable, and his promoting style maybe isn't that exact way.
"We want Dillon to be Dillon and do his thing and work with him and give him the support he needs to blow this up," Owen continued. "So yeah, everyone's been pretty phenomenal, man — the behind-the-scenes, the vibe, the feel, the energy of the managers and the fighters and their coaches and everything. It's been a very inspiring time to see everyone coming together and having the same mindset, the same attitude, and just getting on the same page together."