Sean Strickland backs training partner Johnny Eblen ahead of his interim PFL middleweight title fight

Sean Strickland, the UFC middleweight champion, has made his preference clear: he wants his next title storyline to point toward PFL middleweight champion Johnny Eblen. In comments reported by Yahoo Sports, Strickland described Eblen as a training-partner figure he sometimes works with at American Top Team in Coconut Creek, Florida, and said he is backing the rising PFL star to prevail in an upcoming interim title fight.

Eblen is scheduled to fight Impa Kasanganay on July 18 at PFL Austin for the interim PFL middleweight title. According to the report, Eblen enters that bout with a 17-1 professional record, while Kasanganay comes in at 20-6. The interim label matters in the PFL middleweight picture because it is designed to keep the division’s title path moving during periods when circumstances prevent a single fighter from defending a full title in the typical timeline.

For Strickland, the pitch is about more than personal preference. The UFC and PFL have different promotional structures and championship frameworks, but fans still treat cross-league matchups as the most direct way to settle what each division’s top tier truly looks like. By publicly pressing for Eblen, Strickland is essentially trying to force the conversation toward a “who is the best” matchup rather than a purely internal UFC pathway.

The reported connection is also competitive in its own right. Strickland, who is training with or around the American Top Team environment, is portrayed as an active promoter of the training group around him. Within that context, Eblen stands out as the teammate who has made the most visible progress toward an elite-level title opportunity in the PFL ecosystem, and Strickland’s support frames Eblen as a fighter who belongs at the top of the conversation.

PFL Austin on July 18 becomes the hinge point for the storyline. If Eblen captures the interim middleweight title against Kasanganay, he would be positioned to translate that interim status into the kind of long-term claim that can attract inter-promotional attention, including from UFC champions. If Eblen does not win, the “Strickland wants Eblen” narrative would likely stall, and PFL’s middleweight title picture would shift back toward whoever emerges from the interim fight as the new focal point.

Strickland’s backing, as described in the report, is also a report to viewers that he is paying close attention to PFL’s middleweight division rather than viewing it as separate from the broader MMA hierarchy. Even without a signed agreement or announced fight date, the UFC champion’s stated desire to fight a specific PFL opponent adds urgency to how fans watch Eblen’s next fight, because it turns a single interim-belt appearance into a potential qualifying event for a larger matchup dream.

The immediate thing to watch is whether PFL Austin produces the champion Strickland is pointing toward. After July 18, attention will naturally move to what PFL decides regarding the interim title’s next steps and whether UFC’s middleweight scene adjusts to make a fight with Eblen realistic. Until then, the most concrete takeaway is that Strickland is casting his future through the lens of Eblen, and the PFL interim title bout is the first test of that plan.