Bellator champ Johnny Eblen rolling with the punches after his fight was moved for unknown reasons

Photo by Cooper Neill/Getty Images

Bellator middleweight champion Johnny Eblen was less than two weeks away from a title defense against Fabian Edwards when he got word that his fight was being moved.

Just 11 days before the Bellator London card took place, Eblen’s fight with Edwards was suddenly removed from the event and eventually rescheduled for the PFL pay-per-view show on Oct. 19 in Saudi Arabia. No explanation was given and even Eblen admits he was never told why the change was made.

“They just moved the fight,” Eblen told MMA Fighting. “Not sure exactly what happened. I was prepared to fight in London and I was actually pretty excited for it. But you know they moved it, I’m a company man so I did what they wanted me to do. They took care of me though, so there’s no issue and now I’m ready to go fight in Saudi Arabia.”

When it comes to PFL taking care of him, Eblen didn’t disclose if that meant a payout for the disruption to his training camp but whatever happened, he was satisfied enough to roll with the punches.

While he was focused on peaking for the event on Sept. 14, Eblen ultimately shut down his training to rest his body and then pick back up again to prepare for Oct. 19 instead.

“It changed a lot,” Eblen said about his training camp. “Like I said, they took care of me. I’m not having any issues with it. I took a couple of weeks off, did some light training and then I’m going to peak again [Oct. 19] and I leave in two and a half [weeks].

“I’m in shape. Just took some time off sparring, got back into sparring this week. Just going to do a small little camp before I go back out.”

The change also affected plans that Eblen had with friends and family traveling to see him fight.

He revealed that a large group of supporters were set to attend the Bellator London card but that’s no longer the case with his title defense now taking place in Saudi Arabia.

That inconvenience may have actually served as a bigger annoyance than the interruption to his training camp but Eblen knows the crowd, his friends and family in attendance or the amount of travel involved going to the event don’t matter as much as going out and winning when it actually comes time to fight.

“I’ve already been to Saudi Arabia,” Eblen explained. “There’s just not as much to do afterwards. Less people are likely to go just because it’s so much further. London, I had a big group going. It would have been fun to hang out with them after. Saudi’s a little bit different story. Less people are going to show up to that one but it is what it is. No big deal.

“I’ve been to Saudi before, I really enjoy it. They have great hospitality. I liked fighting there last time. I don’t care [if I’m not the main event]. I get paid the same. No big deal to me.”

When it comes to his opposition, Eblen is actually facing Edwards in a rematch after they just fought back in September 2023. On that night, Eblen scored a third round knockout with both fighters picking up a single win since that encounter.

A second fight coming together so quickly probably seems odd but Eblen wasn’t totally shocked when Edwards was presented as his next opponent.

“I mean there’s nobody else really,” Eblen said. “It’s kind of the problem of Bellator at the moment and even PFL, they don’t really recruit middleweights because they don’t have a middleweight division. It is what it is.”

As far as running it back with someone he just knocked out a year ago, Eblen doesn’t look at the rematch as a potential stumbling block just because he already has a win over Edwards.

Instead, Eblen prefers to keep the focus on himself and the person standing across from him when the fight starts doesn’t really matter much in the end.

“I already beat him,” Eblen said. “I don’t really think about that. I just think about getting better. I’m not really worried about the people I fight.

“They’re just going to put somebody in front of me and that’s the person that I’ve got to fight, regardless of who it is, whether it’s a person I’ve already fought or somebody I’ve never fought. I just do my job. As long as the check clears, I’m good.”