Just about every mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter or combat sports athlete, in general, will say the fight is the easy part … it is getting to the fight that is most difficult. Training camp is tough — there is no getting around it. Injuries, sicknesses, family problems, deaths — these are all things fighters might have to go through, heck, some fighters go into debt to pay for training.

In this new series exclusively for MMAmania.com, MMA fighters will reveal their worst fight camps and reveal how they got through it. We kick things off with Bellator MMA Middleweight champion, Johnny Eblen, who locks horns with Professional Fighters League (PFL) Light Heavyweight roost-ruler, Impa Kasanganay, who is dropping down to 185 pounds for a special “Champion vs. Champion” this afternoon (Sat. Feb. 24, 2024) inside Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

It’s win or else!

My Worst Camp: Johnny Eblen

My worst camp was probably the camp where I was getting ready for Anatoly Tokov,” Eblen told MMAManaia.com. “I broke my f—king pinky toe a week and a half in literally my last sparring session. In the last round, I threw an f—king teep kick trying to land in the liver, and my pinky toe ended up hitting his elbow. I broke it, and I tore my f—king toe, so I had to go get stitches. I couldn’t walk for like a whole last week, and I had to go fight soon. Like, this was like, maybe ten days before the fight, and I couldn’t really walk. So, it was just like, ‘Oh, man, this sucks.’”

With a torn, broken pinky toe that messed with his movement, Eblen had to make a decision: fight through it or pull out of the co-main event of Bellator 290, which was an iconic event as it was Fedor Emelianenko’s retirement fight. Also, as a champion, there is a lot of money riding on the line because if he were to lose, Eblen’s pay dramatically falls.

“Pressure” had no intentions of pulling out.

“The only reason I would ever pull out is because of a tragic injury,” Eblen said. “I try to pride myself on being not very injury-prone nowadays. I used to get injured a lot, but I changed a lot of things in my life to where I reduce the prevalence of injuries when I train, so yeah, man. I pride myself on being able to compete whenever I can or being able to compete early and often. And that’s what you do… You just kind of let it heal, you relax a little bit, but you try to do the work that you can and try to keep the weight off.”

Eblen scored a unanimous decision victory in his first Middleweight title defense but he had to work for it.

I ended up going in and getting the win, but like, even during that fight when I switched to southpaw I couldn’t really drive off my back foot because my toe hurt so bad,” Eblen said. And then, anytime I would kick with my left foot or my left leg it didn’t have that thud that I usually throw it with. I was a little bit worried about hitting my toe again, you know? Or maybe the pain or whatever… But that was the worst camp just because that injury happened at such a weird time. Dude, f—king your toes up, it’s no good.”

Eblen returns to action on Feb. 24 for the historic PFL vs. Bellator super card as he faces PFL Light Heavyweight champion Impa Kasaganay.

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