Global Fight League (GFL) has just officially booked Dillon Danis vs Tony Ferguson, surprising grappling and MMA fans all around the world with the announcement. It’s a very unusual fight and nobody would have predicted it even a few months ago, but the combat sports world moves very fast indeed. It really wasn’t that long ago that Danis announced his decision to retire from fighting altogether, and Ferguson was riding the longest losing streak that anyone has ever had in the UFC. Although Ferguson never showed any signs of wanting to retire, many fans predicted that it wouldn’t be too long before he did.
Then when Ferguson was released from the UFC after 8 consecutive losses, he chose not to retire and immediately signed a new contract with GFL instead. Danis announced his return to the sport around the same time by also signing with GFL, a decision that would see him take an MMA fight for the first time in around 6 years. With both men deciding to compete in the welterweight division and being drafted to different teams, a fight between them was actually possible. GFL founder Darren Owens actually took things a step further, and Tony Ferguson vs Dillon Danis was one of the first fights that he started talking about.
Now that the promotion has started to announce the first round of fights, there were plenty of surprises in store for fans. Frank Mir vs Fabricio Werdum was one of the first to be confirmed and it really set the tone for the sort of unpredictable matchups that fans will see from GFL. Now Ferguson vs Danis has been added to the slate as well, it’s clear that GFL are looking to put together some of the biggest names they have access to right from the start. Even if you’re not a fan of this specific matchup, it’s hard not to appreciate how much a brand new MMA promotion has managed to achieve in such a short space of time.
GFL announced the news that Dillon Danis and Tony Ferguson were going to fight this year in a recent post to their official Instagram account:
