Costello van Steenis: Johnny Eblen 'behaving like a jealous ex-girlfriend' after PFL loss
Van Steenis (17-3) put previously undefeated PFL middleweight champion Johnny Eblen (16-1) to sleep with just nine seconds left in their championship main event bout for PFL Africa in Cape Town, South Africa. The finish was a must for Van Steenis, as entering Round 5, Eblen was up 39-37 on two judges' scorecards, with a third having the fight tied 38-38. Winning the final round would have resulted in a majority decision win for Eblen.
After the bout, in a series of posts on X, Eblen called for an immediate rematch and said that Van Steenis isn't a "better fighter," but a "lucky one." The Spanish-Dutch fighter couldn't disagree more with Eblen.
"I think he's behaving like a jealous ex-girlfriend," Van Steenis told Hablemos MMA in Spanish. "What do you mean luck? Luck that he was fading? He should've trained more. Luck that I put him to sleep? Man, then what great luck you've had in your previous 16 fights.
"Luck is something you build in the gym. Sure, I'm lucky, I've trained more than you, that's for sure, and I believe in myself more than you believe in yourself. So yeah, that's what I think about his comments."
PFL has yet to make its intentions clear on making an immediate rematch between Van Steenis and Eblen, but some would suggest Eblen's tenure as a Bellator champion, prior to PFL's acquisition of Bellator, warrants an immediate rematch.
Van Steenis isn't opposed to the idea, but he would like to get a more exciting matchup, as he's not fond of Eblen's fighting style. Van Steenis sees the winner of the 2025 PFL middleweight world tournament – which is set to be Fabian Edwards vs. Dalton Rosta at 2025 PFL World Tournament 10: Finals on Aug. 21 – as the perfect dance partner for his first title defense.
"Look, I'm not going to say no, but I do want to dance with another rival so we can have more action in this promotion," Van Steenis said. "He won a lot of fights by decision, and many of them are boring. I'd like to create a little more fire in this promotion. Fabian (Edwards) is going to fight Dalton Rosta in a few weeks, and I'd like to fight against the winner of that fight in December. That would be great – and if possible, in Spain."
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Costello van Steenis responds to Johnny Eblen reaction to title loss
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