{"id":37873,"date":"2026-04-22T14:48:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T14:48:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sherdog.com\/news\/news\/Sean-Strickland-Johnny-Eblen-would-be-fighting-for-the-belt-in-UFC-200923"},"modified":"2026-04-22T14:48:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T14:48:10","slug":"sean-strickland-johnny-eblen-would-be-fighting-for-the-belt-in-ufc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/sean-strickland-johnny-eblen-would-be-fighting-for-the-belt-in-ufc\/","title":{"rendered":"Sean Strickland: Johnny Eblen would be ‘fighting for the belt’ in UFC"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
<\/div>\n

Sean
\nStrickland<\/a> confirms that not all the best fighters in the world
\nare a part of the
\nUFC<\/a> roster. <\/p>\n

Strickland recently shared high praise for his training partner
\nJohnny
\nEblen<\/a>. Following a sparring session with Eblen, Strickland
\njoked that the UFC should never sign \u201cPressure.\u201d Strickland wants
\nEblen to stay put in the
\nProfessional Fighters League<\/a> because he would be a threat to
\nthe entire UFC roster. Strickland believes Eblen would be competing
\nfor a UFC title if the promotion signed him.<\/p>\n

Championship Talent<\/h2>\n

\u201cNever let this man come to the UFC,\u201d Strickland said on his
\nInstagram Stories. \u201cKeep his ass where he\u2019s at. F\u2014-ing savage, bro.
\nIf this man was in the UFC, he\u2019d be fighting for the
\nbelt.\u201d <\/p>\n

Eblen (17-1) is widely considered one of the best fighters in the
\nworld outside of the UFC. The former Bellator
\nMMA<\/a> middleweight champion also continued his reign at PFL when
\nthe promotion took over Bellator. Eblen was a massive -550 favorite
\ngoing into his title defense against Costello
\nvan Steenis<\/a> last year. However, van Steenis handed Eblen his
\nlone professional loss by choking him unconscious with nine seconds
\nleft in the fight in one of the biggest upsets in PFL title fight
\nhistory. Eblen has since rebounded with a first-round submission
\nwin over UFC alum Bryan
\nBattle<\/a> last month. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

Sean
\nStrickland<\/a> believes Johnny
\nEblen<\/a> is too dangerous for the UFC roster<\/p>\n

“Never let this man come to the UFC. Keep his a** where he\u2019s at. If
\nthis man were in the UFC, he\u2019d be fighting for the belt.”<\/p>\n

(Via @SStricklandMMA<\/a>
\n) pic.twitter.com\/rqEMhaI76b<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Red Corner MMA (@RedCorner_MMA)
\nApril 22, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/center> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sean Strickland confirms that not all the best fighters in the world are a part of the UFC roster.  Strickland recently shared high praise for his training partner Johnny Eblen. Following a sparring session with Eblen, Strickland joked that the UFC should never sign \u201cPressure.\u201d Strickland wants Eblen to stay put in the Professional Fighters […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37874,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[150],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37873","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-martial-arts-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37873","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37873"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37873\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}