Costello van Steenis reacts to Johnny Eblen's call for rematch, 'lucky' comments after viral submission to win PFL title

24/07/2025 16:00

New PFL champion Costello van Steenis knows he'll fight Johnny Eblen again after his Hail Mary submission win at PFL Africa, but it may not be next—and if Eblen had survived those final 10 seconds, van Steenis feels the rematch storyline would look much different on Eblen's side.

Van Steenis choked Eblen unconscious in the final seconds of their main event championship fight this past Saturday in Cape Town, South Africa. Eblen was ahead on two of the judges' scorecards heading into the final round, while one judge had it even. Had Eblen made it to the final horn, he likely would have won a majority decision.

With Eblen calling for an immediate rematch in the aftermath, and hoping van Steenis and PFL will grant it, if the roles were reversed, van Steenis believes Eblen would have sent him back in line.

"No, he wouldn't take a rematch," van Steenis told MMA Fighting. "I think I screwed him up real bad. I mean, the only thing he gave me was like a little bit of a blue eye, and to be honest, I could start going into training camp tomorrow. I don't know if he can walk because of the calf kicks.

"Another thing is he got bruised up real bad on his face. He got some stitches. He got to have a bit of his head shaved off to get stitched up from the side. So I beat him up [in the] standup. I think messed him up, so I think he would not want to rematch with me. He would say, 'Oh no, I beat you by hugging you down and doing the least damage possible. So you should be fighting somebody else and earn your spot again.' I think that's what he would be saying because Johnny and his team knows that I am the most dangerous and one of the best fighters in the world that he would be fighting again.

"And of course, he wants to rematch now because I've got this beautiful [belt] here. But if he had this one, then he would say, 'No, no, I'll give somebody else the [chance].' That's what I believe. Maybe I'm wrong, but this is what I believe."

It was a tale of two fights, as Eblen used a wrestling-heavy attack to set the tone in the early rounds. As the third round concluded, it seemed as if the momentum had shifted to van Steenis' side. That continued into the championship rounds as van Steenis had Eblen badly hurt at the end of Round 4 and nearly captured the title then. That led to the magic in Round 5 in one of the most memorable finishes in promotional history.

After re-watching the bout, van Steenis revealed his biggest takeaways.

"Oh man, I had too much respect for him," van Steenis said. "I was saying, of course, Johnny Eblen is a legend. He's a very strong fighter, but so am I. In the first two rounds, I was like—especially the first round—I got into the fight, I'm like, OK, I need to watch out. Apparently this guy is really strong because everybody is saying he is one of the best middleweight fighters in the world. I mean, he's trained with [Sean] Strickland, Dustin Poirier [is] saying in an interview, 'Yeah, this guy's going to be on top of the pyramid for a very long time.' I was like, 'Oh shit, OK, OK. I'm still going to finish this guy, but I need to watch out.'

"But then after the first round finished, OK, he took me down, he had good control, but I got to stand up. He's just human, just like I am. And in the second round, at the end of the second round, he was getting tired. He walked to his corner with his head down, I was like, 'This motherf*cker is getting tired.' So then I got into the third round with self-confidence, and that's when I was putting up the pace. And at that very moment I was like, 'All right, I think I'm going to get you, and maybe not in this round, but I'll probably get you in the fourth round.'

"And in the fourth round, I nearly knocked him out, I think in the last 10 seconds, because I saw his eyes going squared or crossing, crossing eyes. But then it got too late and the bell went."

Van Steenis is not ruling out an immediate rematch with Eblen. If the PFL wants to go in that direction, the new champion would happily sign the contract.

As far as what he's being told, the promotion seems to be eyeing a bout between van Steenis and the winner of the PFL middleweight tournament championship bout between Fabian Edwards and Dalton Rosta.

In his challenge for that immediate runback, Eblen called himself the better fighter, and van Steenis "lucky" to capitalize on his big mistake. Van Steenis doesn't agree with that sentiment in any way.

"I think Johnny and I definitely will fight again in the future, so rematch, yeah, we're going to have a rematch," van Steenis explained. "But when? I believe somebody else is next in line. Let's put some new flow into the division. I know that Dalton and Fabian are gonna fight each other in August, and I've heard that I'd be fighting maybe the winner of them too at end of the year. So that might be very interesting.

"I fought Fabian Edwards. I won against him four years ago through split decision. He's a good fighter, so that would be interesting as well, and Dalton Rosta is a new guy. I believe that would be a very nice, good fight as well. And Eblen yeah, we'll cross paths definitely. But, I never said no to a rematch. ...

"Yeah, lucky, but it sounds like an ex-girlfriend trying to come back to me or wishing me the worst. I don't know. I beat you, put you to sleep."