By Andy Cotterill
News came out today from veteran MMA journalist Ariel Helwani that is both surprising and not surprising at the same time. New MMA promotion Global Fight League (GFL) has cancelled their inaugural events-pair on May 24th and 25th.
Six Canadians were selected in the GFL Draft, with Julia Budd and Randi Field directly affected by the May 24-25 cancellation. The other Canadians were scheduled to fight on later events.
Heavyweight – Tanner Boser
Middleweight – Mariusz Ksiazniewicz
Bantamweight – Josh Hill
Bantamweight – Julia Budd
Strawweight – Randi Field
Atomweight – Anastasia Nikolakakos
The GFL came onto the scene relatively recently promising a viable alternative to the UFC, however that assertion is clearly off to a rocky start.
Later today, GFL owner Darren Owens released this statement to Helwani via text message:
“Working on a solution. My main investor didn’t fulfill his April obligation which has caused a problem. I’ll keep you posted but I believe we will be able work through it. I think we can make it happen for June.
“Additionally I don’t foresee the event taking place in California but we absolutely will keep pushing forward.
“I think we’re going to have to push the dates to June 15/16. I’ll confirm asap. It’s been a frustrating week but I think there’s a solution in place.”