Featured Image credit: Bellator MMA
Bellator Middleweight champion Gegard Mousasi (49-7-2 MMA, 7-1 Bellator) will not have to wait long for his next fight as the promotion is planning to match him up with unbeaten Johnny Eblen (11-0 MMA, 7-0 Bellator) in June.
People with knowledge of those plans confirmed to MMA Fighting that Bellator is working on the middleweight title fight between Mousasi and Eblen for June with the exact date and location to be yet revealed. This quick return to action is a result of Mousasi’s frustration with the fact that he only had three fights between September 2019 and August 2021 with a promotion willing to give him a chance to fight more often as he wished to.
Gegard Mousasi vs. Johnny Eblen
Gegard Mousasi is a Strikeforce, Dream, and UFC veteran who made the jump to Bellator riding a five-fight winning streak stacked up inside the UFC Octagon. He made his promotional debut at Bellator 185, where he defeated Alexander Shlemenko. After that, he won the Bellator middleweight title by defeating Rafael Carvahlo, which he later lost to Rafael Lovato Jr. He regained the vacant championship by beating Douglas Lima and defended it twice against John Salter and most recently, Austin Vanderford at Bellator 275.
Eblen sports an impressive 11 – 0 professional MMA record with seven of those wins taking place inside the Bellator’s circular cage. He secured his contender status by defeating the aforementioned Salter at Bellator 276 and will look to avenge the loss of fellow American Top Team member, Vanderford.
Eblen also holds Bellator victories over Collin Huckbody and Daniel Madrid.
