Johnny Eblen’s portfolio may have taken a hit, but he still looks like one of the biggest fish in the Professional Fighters League pond.
The former Bellator MMA middleweight champion attempts to hit the reset button when he meets Ultimate Fighting Championship refugee Bryan Battle in the PFL Pittsburgh headliner on Saturday at the UPMC Events Center in western Pennsylvania. Eblen enters the cage as a better than 3-to-1 favorite against “The Ultimate Fighter” Season 29 winner. As such, he seems to have multiple on-paper paths to victory ahead of his latest top-of-the-ticket assignment. A look at three reasons why Eblen beats Battle at the PFL’s first show on American soil in more than seven months:
Wrestling
Eblen was a state champion in high school and wrestled collegiately at the University of Missouri—the same program that produced Michael Chandler, Ben Askren and Tyron Woodley. He racked up 87 wins for the Tigers and emerged as an NCAA qualifier despite a rash of injuries. Eblen has only enhanced his skills at the star-studded American Top Team camp in Coconut Creek, Florida, where he trains under former Olympian Steve Mocco, a four-time NCAA All-American and two-time national champion. Battle was susceptible to takedowns throughout his run in the UFC, as four different opponents executed multiple takedowns against him. The list includes Rinat Fakhretdinov, who secured seven of them in a unanimous decision over Battle at UFC Fight Night 216.
Conditioning
Cardio had never been an issue for Eblen, until his stunning submission loss to Costello van Steenis in the final seconds of their PFL Champions Series 2 main event on July 19. He and his team figure to have made the necessary tactical adjustments to keep history from repeating itself. Eblen has gone the distance nine times as a pro and fought the 25-minute maximum on three different occasions. He owns a 9-0 record in those bouts. Battle, on the other hand, missed weight three times in the UFC, leading many to question whether or not he has his priorities in order. His last failure on the scale, which resulted in a fight cancellation, resulted in his release. Battle has never fought beyond the third round. All those stars seem to align in Eblen’s favor.
Motivation
Eblen finds himself on the rebound for the first time after his aforementioned defeat. He had won his first 16 bouts before his ill-fated encounter with van Steenis, the vast majority of them in lopsided fashion. A long title reign in Bellator and victories over Gegard Mousasi, Anatoly Tokov, Impa Kasanganay and Fabian Edwards (twice) established Eblen as one of the two or three best middleweights operating outside the auspices of the UFC. The Des Moines, Iowa, native figures to be driven to reclaim his standing and ultimately push toward a rematch with van Steenis.
