I don't normally get excited about MMA startups because I'm not actually all that excited about the leagues or promotions or whatever you want to call it that exist already. I will on occasion watch ONE Championship and I pop in to see who the Bellator stars are every now and then, but for the most part I am just a window-shopper for any promotion other than UFC.
But GFL (Global Fight League - dumb name) caught my eye with this promise of a team-based tournament system where it is important that the overall team be capable of competing at every weight class. Each team has 2 members in each weight class, 7 for men and 3 for women for a grand total of 20 fighters per team. While individual fights will pay out the real championship is an overall points championship that will be determined over the course of a year or 6 months or something. I don't really know because the details are still being ironed out.
src
I guess they are going with Woodley for their ads, which is tragic since I can't stand the guy
It was actually kind of exciting because there was a "pool" of fighters and there was meant to be a round-robin selection of all the available fighters and each participating city is able to select whoever they want. Just like a draft that exists in any sport, you have to be very careful to select wisely and with great care because if you wait too long to select someone that you want on your squad, they will likely get snatched up by another team.
The idea behind it was pretty great and GFL put on a "draft special" online to try to get fans interested. Mike Goldberg was hosting and you may remember him from his times sharing a microphone with Joe Rogan back in the days.
The draft had an opportunity to be a very exciting event for those of us out there that love this sport and recognize a lot of the names but there was a bunch of problems. For one thing, somehow the results of this live draft were leaked before the "live draft" was even aired.
src
This leaked around a day before the supposed "live draft" happened online. You can see a few things are missing but well, since the first several pics panned out just like the leaked images you don't really have much faith that the draft actually is a draft and that any of this is organic. It was determined beforehand and we'll never really know if any of these picks were actually selected by the managers and trainers of the individual cities. To me it all seems like they tried to get real balance or were perhaps trying to save money by keeping most of the Brazilians in Brazil and the Europeans in London. I mean, it can't just be a coincidence that this is how it worked out can it?
src
I mean it was still kind of neat to watch but look at team LA. You expect me to believe that *everyone on team LA is American except for two? This is just a chance thing? I don't think so. Team Sao Paulo is entirely Brazilians other than 4. This is not a chance thing. This is rigged.
Also, during the "live draft" there were interviews that were just awkward and even though it was clear they were staged the interviewers ran out of things to talk about and there was even one instance where one interview happened and nobody thought to tell anyone that the person being interviewed doesn't speak English and the interviewer doesn't speak Portuguese. Do you even know your fighters at all?
There is also the question of UFC legend Rashad Evans being in the draft pool but he was Tweeting during the draft about how that they never contacted him about being a part of this and he has no intention of fighting for GFL.
They also misspelled people's names and certain graphics were put on screen that clearly were not finished or edited such as the first one what just sayd "text here" where lord only knows what they wanted it to say. There were also technical difficulties during the broadcast where feeds were simply lost and they had to scramble to have something else to say or show. I'm sure it was a nightmare for the presenters who had to pretend as though this wasn't just a massive screwup.
So this isn't a great start for a company that is seeking to change how the MMA game is done. I mean, I am still going to watch it but if the draft is rigged, are other things going to be rigged as well? It doesn't seem beyond the realm of possibility at this point.
Yes it does not seem like a great start and the least anyone could do is check and make sure you spell the names right. This is looking very amateurish and like a low budget film so maybe lower your expectations a little. It looks like they have missed an opportunity to actually succeed.
there is a side of me that feels that they may have pretended to have these problems knowing that it would get everyone talking about them. Free publicity.