RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – Fabian Edwards gets a second crack at Bellator middleweight champion Johnny Eblen, and isn’t putting too much into losing the first matchup.
At PFL: Battle of the Giants in Riyadh, Edwards (13-3) will look to avenge the loss to Eblen (15-0), which came at Bellator 299 last September. All it took was one win, and “The Assassin” now finds himself days away from another Bellator title shot.
“It feels right,” Edwards told MMA Junkie and other reporters at media day. “Some people say it’s too soon and all of that, but for me, it feels right. … “I just look at it as one fight doesn’t mean that’s how all the fights will play out. I look at it as a new fight, but I’ve felt him before.”
The loss to Eblen snapped a three-fight winning streak for Edwards. He immediately returned to the win column in his following outing against Aaron Jeffery, winning by unanimous decision.
Looking back on the first meeting, Edwards believes he was doing everything properly against Eblen until an ill-timed mistake left an opening. Ahead of the rematch, he studied the first fight and said he watched the finishing sequence “thousands” of times, which taught him an important lesson.
“The small details,” Edwards said when asked what is different going into the rematch. “That’s what this fighting game is, it’s the small details that make a difference. I look back at the last fight, it was a small mistake that made a difference, and I made sure I corrected those.”
The scorecards were all over the place in the first meeting with Eblen. One judge had both rounds for Eblen, another scored both for Edwards, while the third scored one round for either fighter.
This time around, whether it’s on the scorecards or by early stoppage, Edwards is confident he will leave Riyadh with the Bellator middleweight title.
“I get my hand raised by any means,” Edwards said. “I feel like the last fight, I was beating him. It wasn’t any areas that he was outclassing me at. But it’s MMA, it’s 4 oz. gloves, and you get yourself caught sometimes. That’s what I believe happened.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for PFL: Battle of the Giants.
