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Eblen was slated to face van Steenis in the July 18 PFL Austin main event at Moody Center. However, the latter withdrew due to an injury. Eblen, who lost to van Steenis at PFL Africa 1 in July 2025, won’t have a shot at redemption just yet and will instead face Impa Kasanganay for the interim title.
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The American has now slammed his Dutch-Spanish counterpart for pulling out.
Johnny Eblen questions Costello van Steenis injury before PFL Austin main event
Eblen shared his reaction to van Steenis backing out of the fight. He isn’t sold on the extent of the current PFL champion’s injury and speculates that his former foe just wants more time to train.
“I want to stay active, and he didn’t want to fight [in] July… He wanted to push it to later so, it is what it is,” Eblen told MMAJunkie. “He’s being a bitch,” he said. “I guess he got hurt, but from what I heard, I just did an interview, the dude looked at his Instagram. I don’t pay attention to him to be honest, like I don’t care what they’re doing, but he said he was looking into what he’s been up to, and I guess he’s been training.”
“So, whatever injury he had wasn’t serious,” the former PFL champion added. “I think he just wants a little more time because at the end of the day, guys fight injured, but how bad of an injury is it? Is it something you can’t train with or fight with? And apparently, he’s been training so, I think he just didn’t want to have a quick turnaround and it didn’t work for him.”
Eblen then highlighted that most fighters compete with injuries to some degree, using his training partner and friend Sean Strickland as an example.
“I have little injuries all the time that I train with and I fight with. Sean fought [against Khamzat Chimaev] with a separated shoulder the week of the fight. Guys aren’t 100 percent healthy when they show up in the ring,” he concluded.
This article first appeared at Recent News on Sherdog.com
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