A middleweight title fight rematch will headline PFL Austin this July.
Announced by the promotion on Wednesday, the Austin, Texas card on July 18, 2026 at Moody Center will be headlined by champ Costello van Steenis (18-3) taking on Johnny Eblen (17-1) for the second time.
The pair’s first meeting saw van Steenis claim gold, sinking in a rear-naked choke to win via submission late in the fifth and final round. Since that July meeting, van Steenis successfully defended his title against Fabian Edwards, a longtime contender in Bellator and the PFL who won the promotion’s World Tournament last year.
Eblen, who suffered his first and only loss against van Steenis last July, bounced back at the end of March with a submission win against UFC veteran and Ultimate Fighter winner Bryan Battle. Eblen, an American Top Team standout, holds notable victories over Gegard Mousasi, Impa Kasanganay, Fabian Edwards, and others.
Winning the Bellator MMA middleweight title in 2022, he defended it three times before facing van Steenis for the inaugural PFL middleweight championship last year.
“This is the fight that fans have been asking for since the moment Costello secured the rear-naked choke in the final seconds of their first world championship fight,” said PFL CEO John Martin in a press release issued on Wednesday. “There were a lot of opinions about how that fight ended, and both fighters have something to prove. Now we have a massive rematch with everything on the line, validation for The Spaniard, or redemption for Pressure. I can’t wait to see how it plays out on July 18.”
No other fights have been announced for PFL Austin thus far.
