Love & War<\/a> podcast, Faber spoke about his brief time as a member of the GFL roster.<\/p>\n\u201cWithout putting personal business out there too much, they were offering a ton of money and I actually had the main guy and a guy I knew that used to run West Coast Fighting Championship come to my house and kind of explain it,\u201d Faber said. \u201cI was just thinking, first off, this doesn\u2019t make much sense. Parts of it made sense, but what he was offering and everything else didn\u2019t make sense. The guy had an earnest idea, a bit delusional \u2026 some pieces that weren\u2019t making sense. I felt like this guy was a bit gullible, a bit delusional, which is OK, and then my manager had seen [Owen\u2019s] checking account with $30 million in it, so I that was the only reason I agreed to it. I was like, \u2018OK, this guy\u2019s real and he can write these big checks.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cI also talked to Anthony Pettis and, I think, Paige VanZant, and they had been getting checks from him prior on pre-checks. Pettis was the one that\u2019s like, \u2018Bro, I\u2019m going to tell you this GFL thing,\u2019 and I looked at it and so honestly for me I wouldn\u2019t have done it without the blessing of the UFC.\u201d<\/p>\n
Faber proceeded with caution, even going as far as to reach out to UFC CEO Dana White to ask him if it was OK for him to sign with GFL for a rematch with one-time opponent Renan Barao. Though Faber believes he was contractually clear of any obligations to the promotion he competed for from 2011-2019, he still felt it was a good idea to keep White in the loop.<\/p>\n
It turned out to be a wise decision for Faber not to fully commit to GFL, and he later found out that the supposed funds that had been allocated to the fighters weren\u2019t all they were chalked up to be.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe chinks in the armor started showing up,\u201d Faber said. \u201cIt turned out the money in the bank was just a snapshot of money he had briefly and then had to give it back and all this kind of stuff. They had asked me to do some things ahead of time, get my medicals and stuff, and I had already saw the writing on the wall.<\/p>\n
\u201cI told my management, \u2018Don\u2019t get the medicals. This thing is going to fall apart.\u2019 It did fall apart, unfortunately.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of Owen\u2019s ambitions was to provide a genuine alternative to the UFC, which has only furthered its dominance over the MMA industry in recent years. Owen hoped the combination of proven veterans and promoting franchises like a traditional team-based sports league would capture the imagination of fans – and investors.<\/p>\n
While Faber admires what Owen was going for, he had no interest in taking sides, especially since he doubts anyone can win a business battle with the UFC.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn the point of the GFL saying, \u2018Well, this is what\u2019s wrong with the UFC and everything else,\u2019 I\u2019m like, everything\u2019s separate for me,\u201d Faber said. \u201cThey run the way they\u2019re going do it and have their success and I feel like the owner of the GFL was kind of to that note, but for me, I have a lot of gratitude and I feel like this sport is growing and we\u2019re positioned the way we are because of black belts in business having the money. That was it.\u201d<\/p>\n