{"id":152110,"date":"2026-03-30T08:02:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T08:02:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/152110\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T08:02:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T08:02:16","slug":"johnny-eblen-runs-through-bryan-battle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/152110\/","title":{"rendered":"Johnny Eblen runs through Bryan Battle"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Updated March 29, 2026, 1:28 a.m. ET<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Johnny Eblen wanted to get back sooner but showed no ring rust when it came time to finally return.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">At <a href=\"http:\/\/mmajunkie.usatoday.com\/events\/pfl-pittsburgh-eblen-vs-battle\/\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">PFL Pittsburgh<\/a>, Eblen (17-1) made quick work of recent UFC fighter Bryan Battle (12-3) with a rear-naked choke that conjured a tap at 4:10 of Round 1. The three-round middleweight bout headlined Saturday&#8217;s event at UMPC Events Center in Pittsburgh.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">It was a fast, one-sided affair as Eblen tossed Battle to the canvas and then got the back where he locked in a rear-naked choke. Eblen <a href=\"http:\/\/mmajunkie.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/pfl\/2026\/03\/19\/johnny-eblen-reveals-injury-hurdles-prior-to-stunning-pfl-title-loss-van-steenis\/89193833007\/\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">told MMA Junkie<\/a> before the fight that he felt he should&#8217;ve been the first title defense of champion Costello van Steenis, and he put more evidence behind that claim by defeating a former &#8220;TUF&#8221; winner.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Eblen likely aligns himself for van Steenis, who defeated Fabian Edwards eight days prior at PFL Madrid. The bout will be a rematch of van Steenis&#8217; come-from-behind victory in July, which ended in the waning seconds of the final round.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Battle comes up short in his promotional debut. He succeeded during his UFC tenure, compiling a whopping 7-1 record. However, his toughest opponent was his own weight. Battle missed weight across multiple divisions, which directly led to his promotional release.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"gnt_em gnt_em_gl gnt_em__el\" href=\"http:\/\/mmajunkie.usatoday.com\/picture-gallery\/sports\/pfl\/2026\/03\/29\/johnny-eblen-def-bryan-battle-pfl-pittsburgh-best-photos\/89374975007\/\" data-t-l=\"\u2691g:l|l|c|view gallery:inline promo\" aria-label=\"View Gallery - Johnny Eblen def. Bryan Battle at PFL Pittsburgh: Best photos\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><img class=\"gnt_em_gl_i\" data-g-r=\"lazy\" data-gl-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/89374965007-pfl-20260328-c-1-n-03570.jpg\" data-gl- decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" width=\"660\" height=\"372\"\/><\/a>Complete PFL Pittsburgh resultsJohnny Eblen def. Bryan Battle via submission (rear-naked choke) \u2013 Round 1, 4:10Impa Kasanganay def. Dalton Rosta via knockout (punches) \u2013 Round 1, 3:18Ariane da Silva def. Sumiko Inaba via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)Alexei Pergande def. Julio Arce via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)Lazaro Dayron def. Jacob Thrall via unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 30-27)Jack Cartwright def. Allan Begosso via split decision (29-28, 27-29, 29-28)Jakub Kaszuba def. Natan Schulte via unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)Dakota Bush def. Robert Watley via knockout (punches) \u2013 Round 1, 0:34Ernesto Rodriguez def. Masayuki Kikuiri via majority decision (28-28, 29-28, 29-28)Tatiana Postarnakova def. Elora Dana via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)Josh Fremd def. Jarrah Al-Silawi via knockout (punch) \u2013 Round 3, 3:57Fred Dupras def. Ethan Goss via technical submission (guillotine choke) \u2013 Round 1, 2:46<img class=\"gnt_em_cp_cw_i\" data-g-r=\"lazy\" data-gl-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1774857736_754_79732437007-91-2748166.jpeg\" data-gl- decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Updated March 29, 2026, 1:28 a.m. ET Johnny Eblen wanted to get back sooner but showed no ring&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":152111,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[942,73,75,74,55982,55983,55984,952,55985,2514,5701,544,535],"class_list":{"0":"post-152110","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh","8":"tag-accessfree","9":"tag-pittsburgh","10":"tag-pittsburgh-headlines","11":"tag-pittsburgh-news","12":"tag-sstssportspfl","13":"tag-sstsnpfl","14":"tag-tagmartial-arts","15":"tag-tagoverall-neutral","16":"tag-tagpfl","17":"tag-tagpittsburgh","18":"tag-tagsport-scores-statistics","19":"tag-tagsports-news","20":"tag-typestory"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152110"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152110\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/152111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}