{"id":38663,"date":"2026-06-05T16:46:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T16:46:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sherdog.com\/news\/news\/Injury-transforms-title-tilt-atop-PFL-Austin-on-July-18-201437"},"modified":"2026-06-05T16:46:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T16:46:12","slug":"injury-transforms-title-tilt-atop-pfl-austin-on-july-18","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/injury-transforms-title-tilt-atop-pfl-austin-on-july-18\/","title":{"rendered":"Injury transforms title tilt atop PFL Austin on July 18"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
<\/div>\n

The
\nProfessional Fighters League<\/a> middleweight strap will still be
\non the line, just in a different way.<\/p>\n

The promotion announced<\/a>
\non Friday that its marquee matchup for
\nPFL Austin<\/a> has changed. Due to an injury suffered by
\nmiddleweight kingpin Costello
\nvan Steenis<\/a>, Johnny
\nEblen<\/a> (17-1) will be drawing a new opponent at the Moody Center
\nin Texas\u2019 capital city. For the interim 185-pound belt, Eblen will
\nbe rematching Impa
\nKasanganay<\/a> (20-6).<\/p>\n

\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Top notch
\nfeatherweights headline PFL San Diego: Tune in Saturday, June 27 at
\n9 p.m. ET on ESPN<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The man who currently calls himself \u201cPressure\u201d was looking to exact
\nrevenge for his lone career defeat. After bringing over the
\nBellator MMA<\/a> belt with him, Eblen vied for the
\nPFL title in 2025 against van Steenis. Up on two scorecards, Eblen
\nsuccumbed to a last-second rear-naked choke that put him all the
\nway to sleep. He has since bounced back into the win column by
\nwrangling Bryan
\nBattle<\/a> with a face crank in a little over four minutes this
\npast March.<\/p>\n

The 2023 light heavyweight tourney victor returned to middleweight
\nlast year to enter into PFL\u2019s 185-pound bracket. While he was
\nknocked out of it by Fabian
\nEdwards<\/a>, he has since rattled off a pair of wins in the weight
\nclass over Andrew
\nSanchez<\/a> and Dalton
\nRosta<\/a>. In the PFL vs. Bellator event in 2024, he opted as the
\n205-pound tourney champ of the previous year to challenge Eblen in
\na crossover battle, and he lost a contentious split decision.<\/p>\n

PFL Austin current lineup:<\/h2>\n

Johnny
\nEblen<\/a> vs. Impa
\nKasanganay<\/a> \u2013 interim middleweight belt
Sergio
\nPettis<\/a> vs. Lewis
\nMcGrillen-Evans<\/a> \u2013 bantamweight
Sergio
\nCossio<\/a> vs. Kolton
\nEnglund<\/a> \u2013 lightweight
Andrea
\nVazquez<\/a> vs. Aleksandra
\nSavicheva<\/a> \u2013 women\u2019s flyweight

<\/p>\n
\n

UPDATE: New #PFLAustin<\/a>
\nMain Event<\/p>\n

Costello Van Steenis is out with an injury. An interim PFL
\nMiddleweight World Title will now be on the line on Saturday, July
\n18th<\/p>\n

Johnny Eblen will now face Impa Kasanganay for the interim PFL
\nMiddleweight World Title LIVE from the Moody\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/IOAlJnpy5j<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 John Martin (@JohnMartinPFL)
\nJune 5, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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

The Professional Fighters League middleweight strap will still be on the line, just in a different way. The promotion announced on Friday that its marquee matchup for PFL Austin has changed. Due to an injury suffered by middleweight kingpin Costello van Steenis, Johnny Eblen (17-1) will be drawing a new opponent at the Moody Center […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38664,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[150],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38663","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\/38663","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=38663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38663\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}