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Brett OkamotoJan 13, 2026, 11:33 AM ET<\/p>\n
Close<\/a>Brett Okamoto has reported on mixed martial arts and boxing at ESPN since 2010. He has covered all of the biggest events in combat sports during that time, including in-depth interviews and features with names such as Dana White, Khabib Nurmagomedov, Conor McGregor, Nate Diaz, Floyd Mayweather, Manny Pacquiao and Georges St-Pierre. He was also a producer on the 30 for 30 film: “Chuck and Tito,” which looked back at the careers and rivalry of Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz. He lives in Las Vegas, and is an avid, below-average golfer in his spare time.<\/p>\n A middleweight bout between former Bellator MMA champion Johnny Eblen<\/a> and Bryan Battle<\/a> headline a PFL event on March 28 in Pittsburgh, CEO John Martin announced on Tuesday.<\/p>\n The PFL will make its promotional debut in Pittsburgh, inside UPMC Events Center at Robert Morris University. The main card airs on ESPN in the U.S.<\/p>\n Editor’s Picks Eblen (16-1) will look to bounce back from the first loss of his career, a shocking submission to Costello van Steenis<\/a> for the PFL’s 185-pound championship in July. Eblen was heavily favored to defeat van Steenis at the inaugural PFL Africa event in Cape Town, but submitted to a rear-naked choke in the fifth round.<\/p>\n Battle (12-2) is looking to make a comeback of his own, albeit under much different circumstances. The 31-year-old was released by the UFC in August, after he failed to make weight for a middleweight bout in Chicago. It was the second time in a row Battle had failed to make weight, the latter coming after he even made the move up an entire weight class. Battle hasn’t suffered a loss since 2022, but his commitment has fallen under question after multiple failed cuts.<\/p>\n The PFL also announced a middleweight co-main event between Pennsylvania native Dalton Rosta<\/a> (11-2) and 2023 PFL tournament champion Impa Kasanganay<\/a> (19-6).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brett OkamotoJan 13, 2026, 11:33 AM ET CloseBrett Okamoto has reported on mixed martial arts and boxing at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":406848,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,641,638,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-406847","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-fighting","11":"tag-mma","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=406847"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406847\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/406848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=406847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=406847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=406847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/r1422774_1296x1296_1-1.jpg&w=130&h=130&scale=crop&location=center.jpeg\")
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