Holm signs with Global Fight League; Borg on board as well

Holly Holm had intriguing and lucrative options post-UFC, including a possible return to the boxing ring. She has chosen to stay in MMA, but as part of a new and vastly different enterprise.

Holm has signed a contract with the Global Fight League, a new, far-flung, team-concept MMA promotion that is expected to begin competition this spring.

The story was first reported by KRQE-TV.

Lenny Fresquez, Holm’s longtime Albuquerque promoter and agent, said the decision was made by Team Holm — Fresquez, Holm and Holm’s longtime coach Mike Winkeljohn — largely because of what the deal held for the Albuquerque combat-sports legend beyond the 43-year-old’s fighting days.

“She’ll be a manager (of a GFL team post-fighting career),” Fresquez said in a phone interview Saturday morning. “That’s what I was looking for.”

While declining to get into specifics, Fresquez said Holm will be handsomely paid. Even more money, he said, was available from boxing promoters. Holm, a member of the International Boxing Hall of Fame, compiled a 33-2-3 record in the ring before deciding to focus on MMA.

But, Fresquez said, he, Holm and Winkeljohn agreed that the GFL offer was overall the best option.

“As a team, this is what we felt was best for her,” Fresquez said. “It wasn’t any one (person’s) decision. It was always a team decision, me, Holly and Mike.”

Holm, who recently obtained a release from her contract with the UFC, her promotional home the past 11 years, was drafted by New York in the third round of the GFL’s fighter draft.

A former UFC bantamweight champion, Holm has a pro MMA record of 15-7 with one no contest.

She’s hardly the only Albuquerque GFL connection.

Albuquerque’s Ray Borg, a former teammate of Holm’s at Albuquerque’s Jackson-Wink MMA, posted on Instagram that he has signed with the GFL’s Los Angeles franchise. Borg, 16-5, has not fought since March 2022.

Australia’s Arlene Blencowe, Holm’s current J-W teammate, is a member of the GFL’s Team Dubai.

As posted by the GFL, Holm will be joined on the New York team by two of her former Jackson-Wink teammates: atomweight Bi Nguyen and light heavyweight Devin Clark.

Two more former Jackson-Wink fighters, heavyweights Rashad Evans and Andrei Arlovski, are listed on the Los Angeles roster.

The GFL has announced it will field teams in New York, Los Angeles, São Paulo, Miami, London and Dubai.

Many former UFC stars — Alexander Gustafsson, Fabricio Werdum, Luke Rockhold, Benson Henderson, Brian Ortega, Paige VanZant among them — are listed on GFL rosters.