The Global Fight League hosted their 2025 draft on Friday night before the promotion gets underway in April.
Former UFC champion Tyron Woodley became the first ever fighter to be drafted to a GFL team when he joined the roster to compete for the Dubai team.
"The Chosen One" hasn't competed in MMA since March of 2021 when he made his final appearance inside the UFC Octagon.
After recording title defences over Stephen Thompson, Demian Maia and Darren Till, Woodley lost four fights in a row before parting ways with the UFC in order to compete in boxing.
The 42-year old shared the ring with Jake Paul in consecutive bouts, losing both and being stopped in the rematch back in December of 2021.
Woodley was just one of several former UFC champions to be picked up by the GFL with the promotion's schedule of events set to be announcing in the coming weeks.
Former heavyweight champion Junior dos Santos was drafted to the Miami team having left the UFC in 2020, competing in Gamebred Bareknuckle MMA twice with consecutive wins over Fabricio Werdum and Alan Belcher.
Former UFC and PFL fighter Anthony Pettis is also a part of the Miami team with the 37-year old making his MMA return having not competed since 2022 where he was in the PFL's regular season.
Dos Santos' former opponent Werdum was the first draft pick for the Brazil team having also fought in the PFL after he left the UFC in 2020 following consecutive losses to Alexander Volkov and Aleksei Oleinik.
Another big addition that was made in the opening two rounds of drafts was former UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman who recently announced that he was leaving the MMA leader behind after his recent loss to Eryk Anders.
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