{"id":193134,"date":"2025-10-06T10:26:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-06T10:26:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/193134\/"},"modified":"2025-10-06T10:26:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-06T10:26:07","slug":"gfl-announce-ufc-legend-vs-ufc-legend-rematch-will-launch-new-mma-promotion-in-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/193134\/","title":{"rendered":"GFL announce UFC legend vs UFC legend rematch will launch new MMA promotion in 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Global Fight League [GFL] will officially launch in 2026, according to the promotion\u2019s latest statement. <\/p>\n<p>The new MMA promotion snapped up a ton of talent with the promise of two shots in May. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/bloodyelbow.com\/tag\/gfl\/\" data-type=\"post_tag\" data-id=\"6338\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">GFL<\/a>\u2018s future has been up in the air since those <a href=\"https:\/\/bloodyelbow.com\/2025\/04\/10\/not-surprised-fans-react-to-gfl-canceling-events-amid-serious-doubts-about-the-promotions-future\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">events were cancelled<\/a> due to a lack of investment. <\/p>\n<p>After several months of silence, the potential UFC rival has posted a positive update about its future. <\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"681\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/GettyImages-501165950-1024x681.jpg\" alt=\"Chris Weidman and Luke Rockhold touch gloves ahead of their fight at UFC 194\" \/>Photo by Josh Hedges\/Zuffa LLC\/Zuffa LLC via Getty ImagesGFL confirms first fight <\/p>\n<p>On Sunday, GFL excited MMA fans by suggesting the promotion will finally launch in 2026. <\/p>\n<p>To the athletes, fans, and partners, thank you for your patience and support,\u201d GFL tweeted. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve been hard at work and look forward to sharing what\u2019s next. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cStay tuned, more to come on our plans for 2026. #TogetherWeFight.\u201d<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">To the athletes, fans and partners, thank you for your patience and support. We\u2019ve been hard at work and look forward to sharing what\u2019s next. Stay tuned, more to come on our plans for 2026.<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/TogetherWeFight?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">#TogetherWeFight<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/uyL7CHp1hS\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">pic.twitter.com\/uyL7CHp1hS<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Global Fight League (@mmagfl) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/mmagfl\/status\/1974898686988796206?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">October 5, 2025<\/a>  <\/p>\n<p>View Tweet<\/p>\n<p>GFL followed up that post by announcing a rematch between two UFC legends as their first official fight. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/bloodyelbow.com\/tag\/chris-weidman\/\" data-type=\"post_tag\" data-id=\"402\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Chris Weidman<\/a> lost his UFC middleweight title to <a href=\"https:\/\/bloodyelbow.com\/tag\/luke-rockhold\/\" data-type=\"post_tag\" data-id=\"271\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Luke Rockhold<\/a> at UFC 194 in December 2015. <\/p>\n<p>A decade later, the MMA icons agreed to rematch with GFL, but <a href=\"https:\/\/bloodyelbow.com\/2025\/05\/24\/ufc-legend-chris-weidman-loses-in-return-to-action-after-gfl-comeback-fight-was-cancelled\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">their fight was called off<\/a> in April.<\/p>\n<p>Since then, <a href=\"https:\/\/bloodyelbow.com\/2025\/08\/31\/luke-rockhold-breaks-his-silence-after-frightening-misfits-22-knockout-as-he-sends-a-message-to-darren-till\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Luke Rockhold has been badly knocked out<\/a> by <a href=\"https:\/\/bloodyelbow.com\/tag\/darren-till\/\" data-type=\"post_tag\" data-id=\"577\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Darren Till<\/a> after transitioning to boxing.<\/p>\n<p>The 40-year-old former champion teased a retirement before GFL rebooked his rematch with Weidman.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur first confirmed matchup,\u201d the MMA startup posted on Sunday. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe All-American @chrisweidman takes on @LukeRockhold in a highly anticipated rematch between 2 former champions!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Weidman and Rockhold have yet to publicly acknowledge the apparent rebooking of their rematch.<\/p>\n<p>Only time will tell if GFL will be able to deliver events and become a genuine UFC rival. <\/p>\n<p>  <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Global Fight League [GFL] will officially launch in 2026, according to the promotion\u2019s latest statement. The new MMA&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":193135,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,45188,786,18338,121999,11081,785,85],"class_list":["post-193134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-chris-weidman","tag-fighting","tag-gfl","tag-global-fight-league","tag-luke-rockhold","tag-mma","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=193134"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193134\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/193135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=193134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=193134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=193134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}