Bellator 299: Johnny Eblen Apologises To Edwards Brothers

• Johnny Eblen apologises to Edwards brothers after post-title defence taunts.

Johnny Eblen says he apologised to the Edwards brothers after appearing to taunt Fabian following his win over the Briton at Bellator 299 in Dublin.

Eblen, 31, stopped Edwards in the third round of their middleweight title bout before standing over and shouting at his beaten opponent.

The American’s actions caused older brother Leon to confront Eblen, before security intervened.

“There were a lot of emotions, [Leon] is a great fighter, said Eblen.

“I went over after and I told him ‘hey, I’m sorry my emotions were high’ and I squashed the beef. I don’t have any.”

Eblen’s victory prevented Edwards from joining his brother – UFC welterweight title holder Leon – as a world champion.

Leon, 32, is set to defend his belt against American Colby Covington at UFC 296 in Las Vegas, Nevada on 16 December.

“I honestly hope he beats Colby. But I wanna fight him too – he’s one of the best guys in the world, and I’m one of the best in the world,” said Eblen.

“He’s not in my weight class but I feel he might go up to [middleweight] eventually.”

‘Edwards belongs on big stage, despite defeat’

Despite defeat, Edwards carried himself with a manner during the build-up and on fight night that suggested he felt he belonged on the big stage.

All week Edwards appeared calm, singing to himself before media interviews and jokingly grappling with team-mates.

He brought the same energy to the 3Arena, where Edwards walked slowly to the cage, singing his walkout song while soaking in the atmosphere.

Edwards’ relaxed demeanour even caught Eblen’s attention.

“With him I don’t think [he was overawed]. He’s pretty patient, he seemed pretty calm through the whole thing,” said Eblen.

“I think he was nervous but he did a really good job of staying patient throughout the fight.”

Edwards is often compared to Leon, and even admits the pair share the same story, but he also has six years less experience in MMA than his champion brother, despite being just two years younger.

And despite the emphatic finish for Eblen, the fight was closely contested during the opening two rounds, with Edwards largely nullifying Eblen’s takedown attempts.

In the second round, Edwards landed a slicing elbow strike on Eblen, opening a deep cut above his right eye.

Eblen admitted the cut was so deep that he pushed hard to finish the fight in the third round before it got worse.

“He does a really good job coming out of the clinch throwing elbows – that’s how he cut me and I felt a bit of urgency because I wasn’t sure how bad the cut was,” said Eblen.

“It felt pretty bad and it didn’t stop me, but going into the third round I felt like I had to turn it up a bit.”

In 2015, Kamaru Usman earned a unanimous decision win over Leon, but the defeat changed his mindset and the course of his career.

Leon went on to win nine straight bouts before avenging the defeat by Usman and winning the UFC welterweight title, before successfully defending it six months later in the trilogy fight.

Like he has before, Edwards can take inspiration from Leon, in that his older brother had to overcome defeat to eventually reach his goal of becoming a world champion.