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Johnny Eblen (above) says a Sean Strickland fight would be different outside the gym. | : PFL MMA
Johnny Eblen and Sean Strickland never go easy on each other.
Eblen and Strickland have developed a strong friendship despite training at different gyms. Moreover, Strickland frequently campaigns for Eblen to get a Ultimate Fighting Championship contract in the future. The reigning UFC titleholder recently said that he wouldn’t mind putting his middleweight belt on the line against Eblen and the latter would happily oblige.
Johnny Eblen explains why friendship would not stop a fight with Sean Strickland
Eblen recently explained why he doesn’t mind fighting Strickland even though they are friends. He says he’d rather fight Strickland for money since they anyway do it for free in the gym. Eblen revealed that they go hard against each other in sparring sessions and often use big gloves as they are both looking to land damage.
However, Eblen clarifies that neither one is looking for a finish if they see that the other is rocked. Having grown up wrestling since the age of four, the interim Professional Fighters League middleweight king is also no stranger to competing against his teammates.
“I'd be happy to fight him,” Eblen told Ariel Helwani. “We fight each other for free. It’s not that we’re trying to take away from each other. We're just competitors. Even when we spar, we spar hard. It's not easy rounds, man. We spar with big gloves because we're trying to crack each other. Obviously, if someone gets dazed a little bit, we're not trying to go in for the kill because we're training. But it's just competition, man. I grew up competing against my friends my whole life. I started wrestling from the age of four and you wrestle your teammates all the time.”
A welterweight title fight headlines PFL Washington DC: Tune on Saturday, July 25 at 10 p.m. ET on ESPN.
Eblen (18-1) knocked out Impa Kasanganay en route to a third-round finish to win the interim PFL middleweight title in Austin, Texas. Strickland (31-7) had flown to Florida to help Eblen in camp at the American Top Team.
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