GFL Fight Tracker!

03/01/2025 05:11 AM

Brand-new mixed martial arts (MMA) promotion, Global Fight League (GFL), is gearing up for the start of its 2025 season (full draft results here). No dates or venues have been announced thus far, but those important details (for reasons like this) should be announced in the next few days.

While the upstart league continues to figure out a way to skirt around legitimate state-sponsored athletic commissions, not having a date for an event hasn't stopped the promotion from announcing confirmed (and rumored) matchups, which will be featured in its first slate of events.

Let's recap all the fights that GFL has announced:

Tony Ferguson vs. Dillon Danis

Tony Ferguson's first fight outside of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) in 15 years will be against none other than Dillon Danis.

Crazy, right?

Ferguson (25-11) is riding an eight-fight losing streak and has been finished in five of those. His last win came against Donald Cerrone in 2019.

Danis (2-0) has not competed in MMA since 2019, when he submitted Max Humphrey at Bellator 222 and "retired" in 2023. He did compete in a complete joke of a boxing match against Logan Paul and got disqualified.

Yoel Romero vs. Mauricio 'Shogun' Rua

Yeah, this fight is tough to think about because of Shogun's last two fights in UFC, but apparently, he's good to go.

Nevertheless, Rua (27-14-1) is riding a three-fight losing streak, with his last win coming against Antonio Rogerio Nogueira in 2020 via split decision. He is a former UFC Light Heavyweight champion and PRIDE Grand Prix Champion.

While Romero (16-7) might be closing in on 50, he looks like a yoked 35-year-old. Nevertheless, he won his last MMA fight against Thiago Santos via decision on the "PFL vs. Bellator" "super" card, then the 47-year-old Cuban knocked out Duane Crespo in Mike Perry's Dirty Boxing promotion (watch highlights).

Chris Weidman vs. Luke Rockhold 2

Back at UFC 194 in 2015, Luke Rockhold stopped Chris Weidman via technical knockout (watch highlights) to capture UFC's 185-pound crown. And Weidman has been chasing Rockhold ever since (they were supposed to rematch at UFC 199, but the fight got scrapped).

UFC CEO, Dana White, forced Weidman (16-8) to retire after his terrible loss to Eryk AndersUFC 310 (watch highlights) and was subsequently released from his contract. Less than one week later, he signed with GFL.

"All-American" has only won three out of his last 11 fights.

Rockhold (16-6), meanwhile, lost his last MMA fight against Paulo Costa at UFC 278, but has stayed active, competing in different combat sports promotions. Indeed, he cracked his teeth in BKFC, slept Joe Schilling in Karate Combat (watch highlights), and then lost a grappling match to Pat Downey at CJI 1.

Urijah Faber vs. Renan Barao 3

Urijah Faber and Renan Barao first collided for the vacant Bantamweight championship at UFC 149 in 2012, with Barao winning a unanimous decision. The duo met again two years later at UFC 169, and this time, Barao stopped "The California Kid."

Faber (35-11) has not competed in MMA since his knockout loss to Petr Yan at UFC 245 (watch highlights) back in 2019. "The California Kid" has stayed active, though, competing in Brazilian jiu-jitsu and combat jiu-jitsu (watch here).

Barao (34-10) — once touted as the pound-for-pound best fighter in the sport — has not won a fight since 2016, when he defeated Phillipe Nover at UFC Fight Night 95. "The Baron" started his UFC career on a 22-fight win streak and defended UFC's 135-pound title three times.

Uriah Hall vs. Douglas Lima

Finally, a fight that isn't with two grandpas ...

Hall (17-11) was released from UFC after his loss to Andre Muniz at UFC 276 in 2022, but three months later, transitioned to boxing. And in his boxing debut, he fought former NFL running back, Le'Veon Bell, winning a unanimous decision on the Jake Paul vs. Anderson Silva-led pay-per-view (PPV) card.

Hall next boxed Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., but lost a somewhat close unanimous decision (watch highlights). His last win in MMA came when he broke the aforementioned Weidman's leg at UFC 261 with a leg check.

Lima (33-12) is a three-time Bellator Welterweight champion and is low-key one of the most under-appreciated fighters, with wins over Rory MacDonald, Michael Page, Andrey Koreshkov,andPaul Daley, among others.

Lima lost his last fight to Aaron Jeffery at Bellator Champions Series: "San Diego."

Frank Mir vs. Fabricio Werdum

Is it strange that Frank Mir and Fabricio Werdum have never collided in UFC?

Anyway, Mir (19-13) hasn't competed in MMA since a decision victory over Roy Nelson at Bellator 231 back in 2019; however, he did participate in a pair of boxing matches in 2021. In his last boxing match, he suffered a scary, brutal knockout at the hands of boxing champion Kubrat Pulev (watch it).

Werdum (24-9-1), meanwhile, chose not to re-sign with UFC after submitting Alexander Gustafsson in less than three minutes (watch highlights) back in 2020. Instead, he signed with PFL, but only fought once because of numerous injuries (and possibly this).

"Vai Cavalo" then signed with Gamebread Bareknuckle MMA and ended up fighting Junior dos Santos in a rematch from 2008. Werdum dropped a unanimous decision (watch highlights).

More GFL matchups will drop this week, so keep it locked to MMAMania.com.