Johnny Eblen successfully defended his middleweight title against Fabian Edwards by third-round TKO at Bellator 299. Prior to the finish, Edwards opened up a nightmarish cut on Eblen’s eyebrow that looked dangerous for the champion, and it ultimately prompted him to step on the gas and get the stoppage.
“I wasn’t really sure how bad it was,” Eblen said on The MMA Hour. “I went down in the corner after the round, the cut man put vaseline in it, it wasn’t bleeding too much. The coaches didn’t talk too much about it, they just said, ‘You’re cut. We need some more urgency out of you, Johnny. We need to get the fight to the ground. We’ve got to do some more to make it more of a one-sided fight.’
“When they went back in their corner, and I turned around and looked back at them, I guess they got a different angle on my cut, and they all looked at each other and were like, ‘That’s a bad cut.’ I kind of felt some urgency in that round, like, ‘Man, I’ve got to do something big, because I don’t know if this fight is going to be stopped or not because of this cut.’ So yeah. I’m just glad I did what I did in the third round and got the finish.
“I turned it up,” Eblen continued. “I was like, I need to go forward. I need to land heavy shots, and if I have to, get this fight to the ground, advance, get to finishing positions, whether it’s me on top or me landing heavy punches on the feet. I definitely felt more urgency in the third, and regardless of the cut, I would have turned it up in the third, because that was my game plan. But I feel like the cut made it more like, ‘Hey man, we’ve got to get this done sooner rather than later.’”
Eblen did secure the finish just 21 seconds into the third round. But afterward, things took another bad turn when he nearly came to blows with Edwards’ brother, UFC welterweight champion Leon Edwards, after allegedly spitting on the unconscious Fabian. Eblen denies that, and he though he admits he got too heated with his celebration, he said he didn’t intentionally spit on anyone. After taking time to cool off, he said he attempted to squash the beef.
“What happened was, I was fired up, I was talking s***,” Eblen said. “I probably shouldn’t have. I should have been a good sport, I should have walked away and let my fists do the talking, but I can’t exactly remember what I was saying at the beginning. It had something to do with him staring at me. I was thinking about the staredown, and how he couldn’t stop looking at me when they told me to turn towards the cameras, and I thought that was really weird and we kind of got into it. I remember at the end of it I yelled ‘p****’ at him, at the very end. There’s blood, sweat, and just s*** everywhere. I watched it back, and I could see how someone could possibly think I did, but I was just yelling at him.
“I’m sorry that he thinks I did that. I just got a little too heated and was yelling at him. After the fact, I got to sit down and kind of gather myself and go over and talk to them and squash it, because I feel like we both hate Colby [Covington], so I hope he beats Colby. I hope Leon beats Colby. I don’t like these guys, but I hate Colby more.”
Covington previously trained at American Top Team, Eblen’s current gym, before famously falling out with the team. Covington now trains at MMA Masters and will face Edwards for the UFC welterweight title in the main event of UFC 296 in December.
Eblen said he is “going to learn a lot from the experience” and do his best to avoid similar situations in the future, but “The Human Cheat Code” doesn’t have too much time to worry what happened on Saturday. Now 10-0 inside the Bellator cage, with two successful title defenses to his name, he is hoping for a quick turnaround so he can continue making his case for being one of the best fighters in the world, whether that comes against presumed No. 1 Contender Aaron Jeffery, or in an opportunity to make a little history.
“When it comes to the middleweight division, I think yes, [Jeffery] would be the next logical step,” Eblen said. “He beat two of my friends, Austin Vanderford and Dalton Rosta, and he’s the next guy in line to fight for a title that I haven’t beat. So yeah, I would love to get in there and beat his ass and get paid again. But it’s a matter of if Bellator wants to make that fight, or if they want to make him fight again. It’s not my decision at the end of the day.
“If that’s not the case, I think the next logical step — whatever can happen quicker — is going up a weight class and fighting for a 205 belt. It’s an interest of mine. I’ve been thinking about it. It’s another step, and it’s going to legitimize my name, and it’s what the GOATs do. The GOATs of the sport don’t just stay in one weight class, they move weight classes and they show they’re actually, pound-for-pound, one of the best guys in the world.”