Johnny Eblen against UFC MWs

[NenadRS]

Do not see any recent topic about Johnny Eblen, I really liked his recent fights and fighting style.

He reminded me of Khabib perfomance against Trujillo, when Khabib landed 20+ takedowns.

What do you think, how would he handle top5 in the UFC. He could be problematic for Izzy, Strickland, with his aggressive wrestling, cardio.

 

[David Street]

Bellator's Middle Weight division wasn't very deep. Maybe blame the costly fighters like Gegard Mousasi. UFC have a lot of killers at that weight whether new guys like Bo Nickal or old war horses like Kamaru Usman and Israel Adesanya. That division has Khamzat Chimaev, Sean Strickland... So at first thought I didn't think he would fit into top 10 then I re-thought it and a couple on my top 10 list have not been doing as well as I thought like Michel Pereira. So I feel he would be bottom of top 10 .. then after a hard loss and then does harder training (as needs harder competition to inspire) he could be a real threat to the top.

 

[skylolow]

I think he'd have his problems. Top 10 sure, but top 5 for him would be tough with out the right matches at the right timing.

 

[NenadRS]

True, not many tests in PFL. But still his wrestling seems very hard to stop, curious how Izzy or Strickland would handle his wrestling. Mousasi had problems.

Against Michel Pereira he would do similar as Anthony Hernandez. MW is pretty deep there when I looked better.

 

[TadDunbar]

After that fight, I doubt they would want him.

 

[that Indian]

Dricus, Whittaker, Adesanya, Strickland, Khamzat all would be problems. I actually think he stacks up fairly well against Strickland but in a 5-round fight he could get caught in deep waters.

 

[Thesnake101]

After his fight with Impa and this rematch with Fabian, I've gone from having him as a sure-fire top 5 rank to a top 10 guy. His wrestling and cardio are top notch, and he is very durable, but the rest of his game seems to have hit a wall for some years now.

It's a shame because he's actually got a lot of power, but if you can't set it up or do well in prolonged striking exchanges then it matters very little. He's not going to be catching elite guys with one winging shot. Really thought he was something special after the Mousasi and Tokov domination, but he's looked very vulnerable as of late. Still, he's got the attributes to be a very tough fight for anyone, and the lack of strong wrestlers at MW could play in his favor since guys are less accustomed to grinding wrestlers there right now.