Johnny Eblen had been making a case in recent years that he was possibly the best middleweight in all of mixed martial arts, but the 185-pound standout was handed his first career loss in a wild turn of events Saturday in the featured bout at a PFL MMA event in Cape Town, South Africa.
Costello van Steenis pulled off a dramatic fifth-round submission of Eblen to become the organization’s new middleweight champion.
Eblen was up three rounds to two on two of three scorecards heading into the final round — the third judge had the bout two rounds apiece — before Van Steenis, a 32-year-old born in Spain and fighting out of the Netherlands, locked in a rear-naked choke and put Eblen to sleep with only seven seconds to spare.
Van Steenis improved to 18-3 as a professional with his ninth career submission win and third consecutive victory overall.
Women’s flyweight star Dakota Ditcheva stayed perfect and moved to 15-0 in the co-main event.
Ditcheva won a unanimous decision over Sumiko Inaba and afterwards announced she has signed a new contract to remain with PFL. The 26-year-old from England is one of the biggest rising MMA stars outside of the UFC.
Former Bellator MMA featherweight champion A.J. McKee got back in the win column by sweeping the scorecards against Akhmed Magomedov in his return to 145 pounds. McKee had been competing at lightweight for the past three years and was coming off a split decision loss to Paul Hughes this past October.
Also on the main card, Corey Anderson moved up to heavyweight and defeated Denis Goltsov by technical knockout in the second round. Anderson is a former Bellator MMA light heavyweight champion who changed organizations after a six-year, 15-fight UFC tenure where he picked up wins over the likes of former champions Jan Blachowicz and Glover Teixeira.
Anderson is a potential future opponent of Francis Ngannou, who won the inaugural PFL Super Fights Heavyweight Championship in his promotional debut nine months ago.
from Sportsnet.ca
via i9bet
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