Nearly three weeks ago, Professional Fighters League (PFL) Middleweight Johnny Eblen’s world got rocked when Costello van Steenis choked him out cold inside GrandWest Arena in Cape Town, South Africa (watch highlights). The -550 betting favorite not only lost his title but also his precious undefeated record.

Now, with the dust settled, Eblen is itching to run it back with van Steenis—pronto because he’s convinced that “real men” don’t win titles with so-called fluke victories.

“If you’re a real man, bro, you’ll run it back with me,” Eblen told Ariel Helwani recently. “Because if you watch that fight and you watch those first three rounds, I dominated you. It’s just frustrating, because as a man, I wouldn’t want to win that way. I would want to win by completely dominating you, not having a fluke victory like he did.”

Talk about a hot take that’s ice-cold in logic. Fighters say some dumb things, but Eblen’s logic might just snag the crown for all-time bad takes. Sure, van Steenis lost the first three rounds, but when Eblen gassed out in the final round, he got strangled fair and square — no fluke about it.

Perhaps Eblen is salty because van Steenis isn’t exactly begging for a sequel. Instead, the new champ has his sights locked on the winner of the 2025 PFL World Tournament showdown between Fabian Edwards and Dalton Rosta (details).

“I hope they [give me a rematch], but I’m at the mercy of PFL,” Eblen said. “It doesn’t seem like he wants the rematch. I watched the fight back, and I can see why. If I just navigate that fight a little smarter, fight with a higher fight IQ, and take my time, I don’t think he wins a round and he loses that fight.

“So, of course, he wants to fight a guy he’s already beaten in Fabian or a guy he thinks he can beat in Dalton,” Eblen concluded. “He doesn’t want to deal with the same problems. It was a fluke win.”

Time will tell what direction PFL takes with their new and former Middleweight champion.

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