Johnny Eblen will face Costello van Steenis for the middlweight belt at PFL Africa in Cape Town on July 19.
After winning and defending his belt on numerous occasions at Bellator, Eblen (16-0) is about to take on a new challenge in Van Steenis (16-3).
DAZN News spoke to the champion, who took the opportunity to talk about Fabian Edwards, against whom he has twice won, his career and the future.
Johnny Eblen: I think he's a tough opponent. Definitely a good striker, with a good all-around game. I think he's a great opponent to have, and I'm excited to beat him up and showcase my skills against such a good fighter.
JE: No prediction, but I think it's going to be very one-sided. I think I'm going to beat him in the stand-up and on the ground. I think I’ll get a finish, though, before the bell.
JE: Maybe. I've fought many five-round fights, and I don't think he's fought a five-round fight before. So it's definitely something new for him. I have a lot of experience. I'm still very young, and I'm becoming a veteran of the sport. This is nothing new to me. Every day, I train five rounds. So this is very normal for me. For him, it's a very big change.
JE: It doesn't mean much. It's pretty cool that I am undefeated and that I haven't lost, but it's not something I care about. I care more about how I get better every day, and I care more about being a martial artist and improving my skill set every time I go out and fight.
JE: I could see him winning. He's very good. It just shows how good I am. I've beaten him twice. I knocked him out one time, and I beat him in a five-round fight. Not on my best day. My last fight wasn't my best fight, but it just shows that Fabian is very good, and I am very good. I think he has a good shot at winning the tournament. But I also think the other guys that he's going to face have a good shot at winning the tournament too. All four guys are very, very tough.
JE: I'm not going to fight him in Manchester. I've beaten him twice. He has to fight me in my hometown or something like that, or in America. But he doesn't even deserve to fight me a third time. This doesn’t make any sense. I've beaten everybody. I'm focused right now on Costello.
JE: This is crazy. Nowhere else would you see this. The only reason you would see this here is because there's nobody else to fight. This is crazy talk. But who knows? This is not going to move me forward. Fighting him again for a third time, to beat him a third time - what does that do for my ranking? What does that do for anything? It's all loss, no gain. For him, it's all gain, no loss. If he loses to me a third time, it doesn't matter. If he beats me, it's everything he could ever imagine. It doesn't make any sense to fight him a third time. I beat him twice. Maybe down the line, later on, I would be open to fighting him again. But in the near future, it doesn't make any sense for me. I need to fight people that are better than him or better than me.
JE: Not really. I need to fight people that are better, that are ranked ahead of me or ranked right where I'm at. I don't have anybody in the PFL that can challenge me like that. It is what it is. The only person that would make sense to fight, that I haven't fought and that I would be open to - because I haven't fought him yet - is Aaron Jeffery. And then I don't really want to fight my teammates. It doesn't make sense. I'll fight my teammates if it's for something else - if it's really for the number one spot in the world and we have to fight and figure it out, that is fine. I'll fight a teammate. But in this scenario, we don't have to. But we’ll see. I'm open to everything.
JE: I would be open to doing that. That would be a new challenge, new people. I think that would make me more valuable. I would be open to doing that rather than continuing to fight the same person over and over or fighting my teammates. So maybe in the future, I will do this. But this makes more sense because it raises my stock as a fighter - because there are no more challenges left at middleweight. So I think it would only make sense to move up a weight.