There was a lot of bad blood between Johnny Eblen and Fabian Edwards coming into their Middleweight title fight in the main event of Bellator Dublin earlier today (Sat., Sept. 23, 2023) inside 3Arena in Dublin, Ireland, and the two men wasted no time in getting it going.
From the jump, both men came out aggressive, looking to dictate the pace early. Eblen got the better of the exchanges, while Edwards was a tad more patient trying to find his opening, though he never backed down and continued to come forward. It was a lot of the same in round two, with Eblen scoring a couple of takedowns for points. But it was Edwards that connected with the biggest shot of the night up to that point, clipping the champion with a perfectly-placed elbow that opened him up instantly.
At the start of round three, Edwards connected with a left hand that sent Eblen flying back for a second, though it seemed that all it did was anger the champ. Indeed, Eblen came right back and landed a huge right hand that dropped the Englishmen on his butt. Smelling blood, literally, Eblen dove in and delivered one of the most brutal ground-and-pound finishes in recent memory, landing a combination of right and left hands to go along with elbows that put his foe out cold.
The bad blood didn’t stop there, however, because Eblen quickly jumped to his feet and stood over the fallen challenger to vent out a lot of his frustrations verbally. That didn’t sit too well with UFC Welterweight champion, Leon Edwards, who came to his brother’s defense and got into a shouting match with Elben, who was quick to tell “Rocky” that he was next.
Take a look for yourself:
Johnny Eblen and Leon Edwards had some words for each other pic.twitter.com/XYMtBeYPov
— MMA Mania (@mmamania) September 23, 2023
Thankfully, both men were surrounded by security and their teams to prevent things from getting out of control. After everyone cooled down and Edwards shook off the cobwebs, Eblen made his way to their corner and called a truce with the brawling brothers, shaking their hands, though it seemed Leon was more receptive than Fabian.
Eblen has now won 10 straight fights inside the Bellator cage and improves his overall record to 14-0 with two title defenses and continues to make his case as one of the best 185-pound fighters on the planet.
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