INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Modesty took a back seat to reality Saturday, as far as Johnny Eblen likely is concerned.
Eblen not long ago only was willing to say he was Bellator’s best middleweight after he won the title with a dominant performance against Gegard Mousasi in just his 12th career fight. But after Eblen (13-0 MMA, 9-0 BMMA) picked up his first title defense with a unanimous decision over Anatoly Tokov (31-4 MMA, 7-1 BMMA) in the Bellator 290 co-main event, things may have changed.
“I think I’m the best in the world now,” Eblen told MMA Junkie at his post-fight news conference at Kia Forum near Los Angeles. “How I’m training, how much I’m getting better exponentially, I think I’m the best in the world – hands down.”
The win wasn’t a clean sweep for the 31-year-old Eblen, a former standout wrestler at the University of Missouri who has seven of his nine wins in the promotion by way of what typically amounts to stifling congrol.
So Eblen, who trains at the esteemed American Top Team in South Florida, said he’ll assess what he could’ve done better, particularly in the first two rounds against Tokov – who was unbeaten in Bellator until he ran into Eblen.
“I was pretty happy of the performance,” Eblen said. “I’m pretty critical of myself, so I’m going to watch it back and I’m going to pick at it and see what things I could’ve done better. There are definitely things I could’ve done better.
“I got hit. I don’t want to get hit. I could’ve been a little more exciting in a couple of rounds, but it’s a 25-minute fight and I’ve got a good gas tank. I’m just trying to go out there and win fights and be exciting. I’m going nitpick when I watch it back and I’ll get better from it.”
Eblen said his cornermen didn’t tell him explicitly that he lost the first round against Tokov, but he had a feeling that he did. Still, he said he never panicked and just settled into a pace he could control.
“They didn’t say I lost the round,” Eblen said. “I kind of knew, but they were saying stay away from the right hand because he was trying to hit me with the right hand. He was trying to time me. And to be in and out – don’t stand in front of him after I exchange with him. I was calm, collected. I knew I kind of lost (the first round), but I put it in the past. There’s nothing you can do about it. I came out hard in the second round and dropped his ass.
“Of course (my strategy was to wrestle). I couldn’t get the timing down in the first, so I couldn’t mix my wrestling like I wanted to. Once I got his timing and once I hurt him, I started going to the wrestling more.”
Eblen said an upcoming fight between Mousasi and rising contender Fabian Edwards, brother of UFC welterweight champion Leon Edwards, could determine who he fights next. They headline the promotion’s return to Paris on May 12.
Another name currently in Bellator’s middleweight top 10 who could make a case for a shot likely would include Lorenz Larkin, who on Saturday won for the eighth straight time after he opened his Bellator career with two losses in 2017.
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for Bellator 290.
