Johnny Eblen wasn’t completely flawless in his first Bellator middleweight title defense — but he was pretty close.
co-main event at the Forum in Inglewood, Calif., on Saturday night. Eblen received scorecards of 50-45, 49-46 and 49-46 from the cageside judges to end his opponent’s seven-fight winning streak within the promotion. After the opening stanza, Eblen gradually took control, punctuating his victory with a spectacular belly-to-back suplex in Round 5.
“First round was tough,” Eblen said at the post-fight press conference. “After that, I just did what I wanted to do with him, started pulling away. He’s the first guy to beat me in a round because two judges gave him the first round.” Despite a relatively clear-cut victory, Eblen still found some flaws in his performance, though one was only of the tongue-in-cheek variety.
“Yeah, I was pretty happy with the performance,” he said. “I’m pretty critical of myself. I’m going to watch it back and pick it apart. I got hit. I don’t want to get hit.Eblen took the prospect route during his first couple years in Bellator but has risen to prominence in short order thanks to victories over Tokov,
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