Johnny Eblen prepares for PFL Austin title fight against Impa Kasanganay

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Johnny Eblen and Impa Kasanganay will rematch in the main event of Saturday night’s PFL Austin, just over two years after their first three-round decision, and Eblen feels his opponent only has a puncher’s chance in this interim title bout. Eblen was originally slated to face Costello van Steenis for the undisputed middleweight title on July 18, but Kasanganay stepped in for the interim strap. “Since we both fought before, maybe he feels like he has an advantage starting out fast,” Eblen told MMA Fighting, “so maybe he’ll try to start the fight off fast ‘cause he knows… I feel like he has an understanding that his only way that he can beat me is having to knock me out. He’s not going to beat me by decision. He’s not going to outgrapple me. I don’t even think he’s going to outstrike me; I think I’m going to outstrike him. I think the only thing that he feels like he has an advantage with is that he has power, but I’m not going to get hit like I did last time. I feel like he only has a puncher’s chance. And the way you negate that is fighting smart and fighting tactical, and that’s what I’m going to do this fight.” Even though Eblen has called in sparring partners to mimic Kasanganay over at American Top Team, the main focus is more on evolving as a mixed martial artist than preparing for a specific foe. One of his main training partners for PFL Austin was reigning UFC middleweight champion Sean Strickland, who flew to Florida to help him and will be in his corner in Texas. “I was thrilled to work with Sean,” Eblen said. “Anytime I get a chance to train with Sean, it’s always great. Whether I’m helping him get ready for a fight or he’s helping me. We’re always leveling each other up, getting better. Great having him around. Really liked having him at ATT and training over in Florida. ‘Cause I think the past few times we’ve trained, I’ve went out to Vegas and helped him out. But this time around, he came out to Florida and showed up for me and helped me out. It’s great because he’s going to be my corner this weekend as well. It’s going to be fun, man. Excited.” Strickland has been very complimentary of Eblen on social media as of late, predicting he would win the 185-pound belt in PFL and one day make his way to the UFC to fight him. For Eblen, hearing such praise from a popular fighter like Strickland helps grow his brand among casual fans who sometimes only pay attention to major UFC cards. “I think Sean speaking highly of me definitely helps,” Eblen said. “I also have buddies and training partners of mine in the past that were big stars in the UFC. like Dustin Poirier and Jorge Masvidal. They spoke highly of me. Anytime you have a peer like that speak well about you, I think it does get through to some casuals and some people that aren’t heavy in the MMA scene, and definitely helps my brand out. But at the end of the day, I don’t really give a sh*t about that stuff. I care more about becoming a better fighter every day — and honestly, training with guys like Dustin, Jorge, and Sean, and just picking their brain and learning what I can from those individuals.” Eblen is returning to the cage less than four months after getting back to the winning column with a one-sided victory over Bryan Battle, and would love to get a quick finish over Kasanganay, even though “that’s not the smartest way to fight” in a five-round contest. “When I got my hands on [Battle] I kind of understood like, ‘I can finish this fight in this first round’ and slammed him like eight times and then got the body triangle and then got the rear-naked [choke], you know?” Eblen said. “Can’t just do that to everybody, though. I fought Impa before. I could do that to Impa, but it’s like, if I don’t put them away in the first, I got four more rounds of fight. It’s a five-round fight, and I’m going go out there like I usually do for title fights. Take my time, let the fight come to me, don’t try to force anything. That’s pretty much how I’m looking to fight this fight. No different than I would in any previous title fight.” The next step is clear for whoever wins in the PFL Austin main event, and that is unifying the middleweight belts against van Steenis. The 185-pound champion has not disclosed which injury forced him off the card, and Eblen isn’t really convinced that was the main issue. “I just don’t think the situation for him was ideal, so he kind of took any excuse that popped up and ran with it,” Eblen said. “That’s kind of what I think happened. When you sign a contract to fight somebody, you signed a contract. And as a man, my thought process is, okay, sh*t might happen between now and when the fight happens, but I’m gonna try to make the fight happen because I signed the contract. I know a lot of fighters don’t go in 100 percent when they go fight fight night, and that’s a part of it, you know? So part of me just feels like it just wasn’t an ideal situation for him, so he pulled out, and it is what it is.” “Some people are different,” he continued. “Like my buddy Sean, literally separated his shoulder the week of the fight, but still fought. He didn’t pull out of that fight. Came too far. And also, that’s just an injury that you can work through that. It’s not ideal, but you can work through it. And I just feel like, if it was that serious of an injury, you might have to get surgery or something, you might have a lot longer of a layoff, but I feel like he just probably didn’t want to fight me in the States on a quick turnaround. And I think he tried to push it to the end of the year, like in October or something. I’m like, that’s weird. It doesn’t seem like it’s that big of an injury; you just want to move the fight because it’s something that you want to do. You don’t want to fight in the States. I felt like. But that’s just my thought process. I’m fully focused on Impa and getting this win July 18th. Man, f*cking ready to fight.” “F*cking can’t wait to beat your ass,” Eblen said in a final message for van Steenis. “Gotta get through Impa first, but your time is coming.”

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Costello van Steenis and Johnny Eblen were set to headline PFL Austin on July 18, but an injury forced the champion out of their bout. Now, he gets to stay on the sidelines and watch Eblen rematch Impa Kasanganay for the interim title. Van Steenis will be in attendance Saturday night at the Moody Center and had a choice of words for Eblen, who told MMA Fighting earlier this week that his “time is coming” after getting through Kasanganay. “He’s saying he’s focused on Impa, but he can’t wait to beat my ass,” van Steenis told MMA Fighting. “In every interview and every social media platform, I see him mentioning my name. I’m thinking, dude, you’re fighting Impa, right? Make sure you fight him. From now on you’re fighting Impa, so you mean nothing to me. If you lose against Impa, you mean even less than nothing to me. So you better win. You better win and then make sure that you say what you’re going to do. When we sign the contract for the end of the year or maybe next year, I’m gonna look after myself and make sure that I’m gonna smash you. That I’m gonna smash him.” Eblen won a split decision over Kasanganay back in 2024, and van Steenis sees the same outcome this time around. “It can go both ways,” van Steenis said. “I really like Impa. I trained with him. I see him not only as a future opponent, but I also see him as an inspiration to me and to other athletes. And I see him also as a friend. I trained with him in Kill Cliff a couple of times, he’s a great guy. I’m rooting for him. I hope he wins. But I also hope Eblen wins so I can fight him again, and then I am the only guy that beat Eblen. So when I fight him again, then I’m the only guy that beat Eblen not once, but two times.” Van Steenis declined to go into details about the medical issue that forced him off PFL Austin, but said it was a “serious injury” that prevented him from “jump on a bike or even walk stairs.” “I signed the contract to fight in the 18th of July and bad luck came around knocking on the door and I got injured,” van Steenis said. “Of course it’s very normal that you fight injured. I think in every fight you get injured, in training camp, but this was an injury that I couldn’t say I want to fight or I have to fight. Even though if I said I have to fight I couldn’t fight because I couldn’t do anything. I just needed to accept. “Of course I felt like that I lost the fight against myself because first priority is look after yourself, be sure you’re as healthy as possible to get in the fight because you signed the contract, and I failed to myself on this. But after a couple of weeks I had to accept it. Or you just sit there on the sofa whining about it, or you accept that you’re injured and just get to work, get better. Maybe it was meant to be, you know? Even more time to be a better fighter and a better human than i am now.” Van Steenis expects to be at 100 percent in four weeks, and aims at the fourth quarter of 2026 for a unification bout against the winner of Kasanganay vs. Eblen. “It’s very frustrating,” van Steenis said. “I signed the contract to fight on the 18th of July and that’s me sitting on the sideline, and two other people — while I should be fighting, they’re fighting. I just need to accept it, you know? It is what it is. I just need to watch the fight and swallow the tears, actually — saying it in soft words. It’s a motherf*cker [laughs].”