Injury transforms title tilt atop PFL Austin on July 18

The Professional Fighters League middleweight strap will still be on the line, just in a different way.

The promotion announced on Friday that its marquee matchup for PFL Austin has changed. Due to an injury suffered by middleweight kingpin Costello van Steenis, Johnny Eblen (17-1) will be drawing a new opponent at the Moody Center in Texas’ capital city. For the interim 185-pound belt, Eblen will be rematching Impa Kasanganay (20-6).

The man who currently calls himself “Pressure” was looking to exact revenge for his lone career defeat. After bringing over the Bellator MMA belt with him, Eblen vied for the PFL title in 2025 against van Steenis. Up on two scorecards, Eblen succumbed to a last-second rear-naked choke that put him all the way to sleep. He has since bounced back into the win column by wrangling Bryan Battle with a face crank in a little over four minutes this past March.

The 2023 light heavyweight tourney victor returned to middleweight last year to enter into PFL’s 185-pound bracket. While he was knocked out of it by Fabian Edwards, he has since rattled off a pair of wins in the weight class over Andrew Sanchez and Dalton Rosta. In the PFL vs. Bellator event in 2024, he opted as the 205-pound tourney champ of the previous year to challenge Eblen in a crossover battle, and he lost a contentious split decision.

PFL Austin current lineup:

Johnny Eblen vs. Impa Kasanganay – interim middleweight belt
Sergio Pettis vs. Lewis McGrillen-Evans – bantamweight
Sergio Cossio vs. Kolton Englund – lightweight
Andrea Vazquez vs. Aleksandra Savicheva – women’s flyweight

This article first appeared at Recent News on Sherdog.com

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