Johnny Eblen was not surprised by any of his fellow teammates when he won the Bellator middleweight title.
In the main event at Bellator 282, Eblen won the scorecards and dethroned Gegard Mousasi to take the top spot in the promotion’s 185-pound section with an impressive showing.
Many fans seemed shocked at the result of the fight. However, as Ariel Helwani noted Monday on The MMA Hour , it is possible that the promotion did not do enough to put “The Human Cheat Code”, on everybody’s radars.
“I felt like they could’ve pushed me a little bit more,” Eblen said on the show. But that’s not what I do. My job is to fight and beat people up. And put on a show. I don’t know, that’s not my thing to debate how they should promote me, what they do with their show, that’s not my job. I just do what I’m supposed to do and they do what they’re supposed to do.
” I felt that they did a poor job of marketing me and Mousasi. I feel like they were posting a lot more about Mousasi. It was more on his end, but they promoted me a little bit. It was not nearly as significant as Mousasi. If that makes sense .”
It was like I was not getting the push I needed.
Prior to his title victory, Eblen’s American Top Team teammate Danny Sabatello defeated Leandro Higo in a quarterfinal matchup of the bantamweight grand prix.
Eblen cannot help but be struck by the amount of attention Sabatello gets from promos, interviews and performances. He wonders sometimes if it is right for him to go this route.
” I’m the type of guy who likes to just sit back and do the job and watch the fights unfold, rather than having to talk too much,” Eblen stated. Eblen said, “I don’t really excel at acting as a character. I am just good at fighting and being recognized for it.”
” I see Danny’s work — it has a lot more views than it receives clicks and gets lots of people clicking — but that’s not my style .”
Eblen seemed to have a lot of confidence going into the first ever championship against one of the legends of the sport. Eblen felt like many were watching him from the start, and he just accepted all the doubt. He also believed that Mousasi might have underrated him a few days prior to the fight.
Eblen was able to add title belts to ATT’s collection and received some praises from the former title holder.
” He was respectful at weigh ins and I’m certain he took my seriously,” Eblen said. “I think he thought the fight was going to be easier, but I’m sure he took me seriously, trained. … I mean, he was the champion, it’s not like he didn’t train or anything.
“He actually followed me on Instagram after the fight and wrote me saying “Hey bro, you deserve it.” Congratulations.’ He’s a classy dude, a good guy. On Friday, he believed that he was world’s best middleweight. I went to check him. My walkout song was Check Yourself by Ice Cube, and that’s the reason I chose that walkout song. I was like, ‘This dude is so confident right now,’ and I knew he was one of the best, but he needs to check himself before he gets wrecked, and I’m going to be the dude that wrecks him. It all played out like that.”
