Dramatic Title Win for Costello Van Steenis Over Johnny Eblen

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Transcript

00:00where the headlining fight was a middleweight title on the line between johnny eblin and

00:04costello van steenis now van steenis of course a 32 year old the spaniard from the netherlands

00:10born in the netherlands trains in the netherlands but grew up in spain of course that is why he's

00:15called the spaniard and we went and looked that up now found that out because i was a little confused

00:19about that last week obviously not a guy that we have followed extensively here but are getting to

00:23know now and should know because the 32 year old was a former bellator fighter with a 7-2 record

00:28that was coming off back-to-back wins thought he was going to humiliate eblin said so didn't quite

00:33do that but had a great performance i will talk about against eblin the 33 year old american who

00:37was the bellator champion unbeaten for his career 16 and 0 before this fight because like gegard

00:43mousasi defended the belt three times including against fabian edwards twice so he was coming in

00:47there defending that belt we thought he was going to do that we thought that he was going to retain

00:51this by decision like he likes to do just wear his opponents out use that great grappling that was not

00:56the case he did it for four and three quarter rounds but as you see there the fight has ended

01:04with just nine seconds left when van steenis gets the rear naked choke the champ is almost to the

01:11scorecards almost retaining his belt but a late change by van steenis a quick change of position

01:18and ends up getting the back and that is night over for johnny eblin who didn't tap you know you can

01:25talk about the heart of a champion you certainly show that because he caught himself in a bad

01:29position late but would not give up and had to be saved by the referee there nine seconds left you

01:34see and the referee goes in checks the arm sees his limp ends the fight there but it's crazy for four

01:39rounds it was eblin round one two three four even most of five it was johnny eblin doing his thing

01:46he did a good job getting his opponent against you know the cage at times taking him down a couple times

01:50van steenis did a good job stopping some of the takedowns there's a lot of clinch work between them but

01:54eblin was doing a good you know spot getting some slams some ground control some good shots even on

02:00the feet uh van steenis towards the end started to really pick things up though started to get better

02:04and better and those closing rounds i think with his striking and eblin held the position a lot of

02:10that fifth round and then all of a sudden with about a minute left van steenis is able to change

02:15position to put a pull transition that catches johnny eblin out of nowhere that lets van steenis grab the

02:20back with about 40 seconds left and then he closes out the fight with the choke to get the finish and

02:25steal the belt and he is now the pfl middleweight champion the champion series middleweight champion

02:32this fight you know reminded me very much of you know anderson silva versus chel sonnen when it was

02:38just chel sonnen beating up anderson silva for four plus rounds and then silva locks in that submission

02:44and gets the win i felt like a lot you know same kind of thing in this regard where this time the champ

02:49was the one dominating dominating and then is not able to close it out late when it matters most

02:54and this time the challenger takes home the belt van steenis said you could put him anywhere with

02:59anyone he's fine you know gave respect to johnny eblin and i talked about how strong he was but he

03:05said he's a legend and from a family legend his dad trains him his brothers in the pfl they're family

03:10legends and now he's a champion let's hear from the champ after the fight

03:13i told you i'm number 17 this is my special new number baby i'm the champion i'm the best

03:26the rest

03:28ben steenis now 17 and three nine of those wins by submission eblin now 16 and one his first loss

03:36and it's losing his belt as well unfortunately for him

03:39you