So about this GFL project …

Friday, the GFL, the most recent combat promotion of the head of the MMA, had a “draft”. If you have not watched the Livestream of almost three hours, here is what you missed:

• The show opened its doors using the black magic of AI to create disturbing images of well-known fighters posing in the armor of Game of Thrones-Esque, all put on a rap song on the fights.

• The hosts, including the former UFC commentator, Mike Goldberg, told us about the project project just before A graphic on the screen It seemed accidentally revealing that the lists had been decided even before the start of the draft.

• We have heard of various managers and team coaches, including Luke Barnatt, who seemed to relax all of us in a chess.

• At the end, the team lists had been set for Los Angeles, New York, Miami, Sao Paulo, Dubai and London, even if at least one fighter – former UFC Champion Rashad Evans – said later that he had been drafted “without (his) consent” and had No project to participate.

In other words, it was a kind of waste. In the midst of hyperbolic scanning allegations on the change of MMA forever with this visionary approach, there were many small reminders that the GFL is in fact very new in this area and apparently understood it on the fly.

Being clear, being a little in disorder as a new MMA organization is not necessarily the worst thing. The damage can be fun – or at least interesting. In a space where the first major challenge is to draw eye globes and make people aware that your product exists, there are worse things to be a large wreck of noisy train.

But ultimately comes the part where you have to fight a few fights. And the alignment that the GFL has assembled for this purpose is … well, the kind way to say it would be to say “experienced”.

The Los Angeles team has two 45 -year -old heavyweights (Frank Mir and Andrei Arlovski), as well as a light weight that holds the record for the most lost sequence in the history of the UFC. (Tony Ferguson, who left the UFC after eight consecutive defeats.)

The Dubai team used the first global “choice” to select Tyron Woodley, 42, then returned later to get two average weights (Derek Brunson and Luke Rockhold) which are old enough to fight on the Strikeforce Challengers series.

The New York team has Chris Weidman, who has just announced his retirement earlier this month, as well as Leksei Oleinik, who made his professional debut in MMA in 1996, just at the time of the UFC 9 .

Fabricio Werdum of Team Sao Paulo will be 48 years old this summer and, according to a declaration he provided as part of the UFC antitrust trial, treated a Inoperable brain cyst In addition to what he described as “common symptoms with TBI and CTE, including irritability, anger, anxiety, insomnia and memory loss”.

These fighters are all recognizable names for combat fans, which is the point. But grouped like this, they represent something like a tour of the MMA seniors. The only thing they seem to get along is that GFL gave them the kind of money that they just couldn’t let pass, so they are there.

Is there a place for this in the MMA ecosystem? Maybe. If the age of influence box has proven anything, it is that recognition of the name is much more important than the ability to lead high -level fights. Again, for those of us who had a good view of the last time that this team approach of MMA failed with IFL, it seems that the GFL is committed to learning absolutely nothing from the lessons of the past – until Rap song.

Say this for the GFL: he made us think a lot for a company that has not yet organized a single event. It is impressive in a certain way. It’s something. But now he has to do something with this first event which will help guarantee that there is a second and a third. This is where it becomes difficult. Because even if we could slow down to look at a wreckage, that doesn’t mean we want to stop there.