Diesel AK Blog

Fighter Profile: Johnny Eblen

Johnny Eblen: PFL interim middleweight champion — record, wrestling pressure and 2026 title win.

Fighters13 July 2026

Background

American middleweight and a former NCAA Division I wrestler at the University of Missouri, training with American Top Team. A former Bellator middleweight champion, his professional record is 18-1 and he is the PFL interim middleweight world champion.

Career timeline

Won the Bellator middleweight championship in 2022 and defended it, including a champion-versus-champion win over Impa Kasanganay by split decision in February 2024 in Riyadh.
Lost his unbeaten record and the title to Costello van Steenis in July 2025, submitted by a rear-naked choke with nine seconds remaining in the fifth round.
Won the PFL interim middleweight world title at PFL Austin on 18 July 2026, stopping Impa Kasanganay by TKO at 2:39 of round three after landing a fight-changing elbow.
That win sets up a unification rematch with champion Costello van Steenis.

Fight craft

Eblen is a high-pressure wrestler who uses his takedown threat to open up striking rather than the reverse: opponents defend the level change and get hit, or accept the takedown and get controlled. His Kasanganay rematch showed a sharper, more damaging striking game than his Bellator years suggested. The one clear vulnerability is late-fight submission defence — the van Steenis loss came from a position he had controlled for four and a half rounds, and it is the sort of lapse elite grapplers will look for again.

In the modern MMA landscape

Our wider MMA analysis has the Eblen–Kasanganay interim title fight as an upcoming booking. It has been fought: Eblen won by third-round TKO and is now interim champion. The report’s broader point — that the PFL created its first interim title to keep championship stakes on a flagship card — is borne out.

Return to What the Modern MMA Game Demands.

Sources

Record and competitive status checked 1 August 2026.