Gegard Mousasi losses Bellator middleweight title to Eblen

Luthfi Prawiro

The undefeated Johnny Eblen successfully dethrone the reigning Bellator middleweight champion Gegard Mousasi with a wonderful performance on Bellator 282 on Friday.

Despite almost two decades in the fight game, Gegard Mousasi still shows no signs of slowing down. The 36-year-old Dutch just came out of a TKO win against Austin Vanderford in the first round last February. He also riding a four-fight winning streak into this bout against Eblen.

Mousasi entered the bout with a record of 49-7-2, almost six times the fights Eblen had at that point. However, Eblen’s skill set proved to be the deciding factor that night as he successfully neutralized the Bellator’s No.3-ranked pound-for-pound fighter.

Eblen is a standout wrestler from the famous American Top Team. But it doesn’t stop him to show his ability on the feet as he dropped the champion in the opening round. In addition to the knockdown, he also took Mousasi down a couple of times.

Eblen then continued to outwrestle the champion throughout most of the second round. While there are no takedowns in the third, Mousasi still seems got no answers for Eblen’s awkward stand-up fighting. The challenger also took this round quite convincingly.

The fourth and fifth rounds will see a repeat of the early two rounds as Eblen outwrestled Mousasi on most occasions. And before the fight is over, Eblen also landed a suplex to end the fight perfectly.

At the end of the night, all three judges are in agreement to give 50-45 to Eblen. With the score, ‘The Human Cheat Code’ successfully snatched the major promotion’s belt with only 12 fights on his pro record.

Meanwhile, the former champion Mousasi, ahead to the bout against Eblen, was scheduled to have one more fight this year whether it’s on 185 or 205. But with the loss on Friday night, it appears that an immediate rematch is a good consideration.