Outside Source
Johnny Eblen looks to win an interim Professional Fighters League middleweight championship on Saturday following the PFL Austin weigh-ins.
Originally set to face middleweight champ Costello van Steenis in a rematch of their 2025 fight, Eblen (17-1) will now take on Impa Kasanganay for a second time instead. Both men made weight for the rematch, which originally took place in 2024 during the PFL vs. Bellator event. All fighters made weight with the exception of Jesus Pinedo, who came in .8 pounds over for his featherweight contest against Joey Ruquet. He’ll be fined a percentage of his purse as a result.
Eblen is 3-1 inside the PFL, having won his debut against Kasanganay and beating Fabian Edwards in his subsequent outing. The former Bellator champion suffered his first career loss to van Steenis last year, being submitted in the fifth round. Since then, he rebounded with a submission win of his own against Bryan Battle and will now look to earn a chance at revenge. “Pressure” officially weighed 184.2 pounds for the main event.
Kasanganay (20-6) has been quite active since losing to Eblen two years ago. Going 5-2 in that time, “Tshilobo” has racked up wins over Dalton Rosa, Joshua Silveira and more, while getting knocked out by Fabian Edwards and Dovletdzhan Yagshimuradov. The 32-year-old will look to earn the interim belt and a title shot by upsetting Eblen. Kasanganay officially weighed 183 pounds for the fight, coming in two pounds underweight.
PFL Austin will air live on ESPN2 on Saturday. The main card kicks off at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT. The prelims will stream on the ESPN app at 5:30 p.m. ET/2:30 p.m. PT.
PFL Austin weigh-in results:
Johnny Eblen (184.2) vs. Impa Kasanganay (183)
Rafael do Nascimento (135.4) vs. Lewis McGrillen-Evans (135.6)
Caolan Loughran (144.8) vs. Julio Arce (145.4)
Jesus Pinedo (146.8)* vs. Joey Ruquet (144.6)
Biaggio Ali Walsh (155.8) vs. Gamid Khizriev (155.6)
Andrea Vazquez (125.2) vs. Aleksandra Savicheva (124.8)
Ashley Thiner (125.8) vs. Mia Grawe (125.8)
Jackson Glass (148.8) vs. Zak Flessas (149.4)
Victoria Alba (125.2) vs. Borena Tsertsvadze (125.6)
*Pinedo missed weight by .8 pounds.
This article first appeared at Recent News on Sherdog.com
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