Johnny Eblen on confrontation with UFC champ Leon Edwards at Bellator 299: 'I want to fight him, too'

Johnny Eblen almost got into a second fight after his successful Bellator title defense, and it was with none other than UFC welterweight champion Leon Edwards.

On Saturday, Eblen stopped Fabian Edwards, Leon’s brother, in the third round of their middleweight championship bout in the main event of Bellator 299 at 3Arena in Dublin.

Adrenaline was running and Eblen (14-0 MMA, 10-0 BMMA) began to shout over a knocked-out Edwards (12-3 MMA, 8-3 BMMA), as the two had some bad blood in the lead up to the event. Naturally, Leon didn’t take that kindly, and the two had a confrontation in the cage and had to be separated by security.

“A lot of emotions, bro.” Eblen told reporters during a post-fight news conference. “His brother is a great fighter. I honestly hope he beats Colby (Covington). I f*cking hate Colby. That dude sucks. But yeah, I want to fight him, too.

“He’s one of the best guys in the world, and I want to prove I’m one of the best in the world. You have to fight everybody. He’s not in my weight class, but he might go up to 185 eventually. But I went over after and said, ‘Sorry, my emotions were high.’ I squashed the beef. I don’t have anything wrong with him. I just want to fight the guy.”

Things got heated after the bell between @JohnnyEblen and Leon Edwards. #Bellator299 LIVE on @SHOsports pic.twitter.com/s1XK2zJ1B0

— Bellator MMA (@BellatorMMA) September 23, 2023

As far as the actual fight with Fabian, Eblen was overall pretty happy with his showing. This was his second title defense since taking the belt away from veteran Gegard Mousasi back at Bellator 282 in June 2022.

“A little bit of a slow start, but I felt I had the advantage in the striking,” Eblen said when asked about his performance. “He was pretty crafty with the get-ups, I was also trying to take him down, but I wasn’t trying to wear my arms out and work my wrestling too much. I was trying to get a feel for the defense he was doing. He was doing a good job, but over time I think he was getting slower and slower and slower, and I would’ve been able to build on it.

“He does a good job coming out of the clinch in short elbows, and that’s how he cut me. I maybe felt a little bit of urgency because I wasn’t sure how bad the cut was. It felt pretty bad, but they didn’t stop it, so I was like, ‘Ok, cool.’ Going into the third round, I felt like I had to turn it up a bit. I was throwing some big shots. I was planning on taking him down, but I ended up finishing him. It is what it is.”

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for Bellator 299.