The GFL concluded it’s first round of fight announcements yesterday with a matchup between two former UFC heavyweight champions. After announcing Luke Rockhold – Chris Weidman 2, Shogun Rua – Yoel Romero, and Douglas Lima – Uriah Hall, the promotion announced a heavyweight matchup between Fabricio Werdum (24-9-1, 1 NC) and Frank Mir (19-13).
Starting out with Frank Mir, this will be his first combat sports matchup in almost four years. The GFL convinced him to come after retirement and he’ll be fighting in MMA for the first time since October 2019 when he defeated “Big Country” Roy Nelson by decision inside Bellator.
In terms of MMA, the former UFC champion went just 1-4 in his final five MMA bouts getting stopped in three of those fights. However, after some time away, he’s ready to step back into the cage and he thinks he still has something to offer.
GFL Heavyweight Matchup
While Mir is 45-years-old, he’s still younger than his counterpart. Fabricio Werdum will turn 48-years-old later this year. The last time we saw Werdum was in Gamebred Bareknuckle when he faced Junior Dos Santos and lost by decision back in 2013.
Outside of the Bareknuckle MMA bout, we haven’t seen Werdum in the cage since his lone appearance in PFL when he fought to a No Contest against future PFL champ Renan Ferreira. It was an odd fight as Werdum made him tap but the referee missed the tap. Ferreira ended up finishing Werdum but due to the missed tap, it was overturned to a No Contest.
The GFL now brings these two former heavyweight champs back and they’ll look to show that they still have a little fight left.