Bryan Battle On UFC Release, Divorce and PFL Return: “I Wasn’t Giving It Everything I Had”
Bryan Battle says personal issues and his UFC departure left him unable to give full focus to preparation for his PFL debut against Johnny Eblen. “The Butcher” returns against Dalton Rosta in the PFL Charlotte main event on August 7.
Battle suffered a first-round rear-naked-choke loss to Eblen at PFL Pittsburgh in March, tapping at 4:10 after the former Bellator middleweight champion repeatedly brought the fight to the mat. Eblen completed eight takedowns in the round before taking Battle’s back for the finish.
Bryan Battle Explains What Went Wrong Against Johnny Eblen Ahead of PFL Charlotte
Speaking with Ariel Helwani, Bryan Battle did not point to a technical excuse for the result. Instead, the 31-year-old said he came away from the loss with a clear view of what was missing from his camp while preparing to headline against an established champion.
“I learned lessons. There was definitely a bit of a learning curve, once again, headlining and fighting a bona fide former world champion… and there’s just things in life. It’s just been a lot of things happening… I got divorced. I got cut from the UFC… I was doing the best I could, but I wasn’t giving it everything I had.”
Battle said the circumstances had left his attention divided before the fight. His takeaway was that competing at middleweight’s top level requires a complete commitment, especially when facing a wrestler with Eblen’s experience and control.
The loss ended Battle’s first PFL appearance, but it did not remove him from the promotion’s rankings. PFL lists Battle at No. 8 in the middleweight division with a 12-3 record and one no contest, while Rosta is ranked No. 4 at 11-3. Battle faces Rosta at Bojangles Coliseum in Charlotte, North Carolina.
The matchup has title-picture implications following a busy summer at 185 pounds. Eblen and Impa Kasanganay were set to meet for the interim PFL middleweight championship at PFL Austin, making Charlotte an opportunity for Battle or Rosta to improve their standing among the division’s contenders.
Rosta enters off a March loss to Kasanganay, who stopped him with punches in the first round at PFL Pittsburgh. That gives both main-event fighters a direct reason to rebound, though Battle arrives with a sharper public assessment of the problems that affected his last outing.
For Battle, the Rosta fight is his first chance to show that the Eblen loss was a hard lesson rather than a verdict on his place in the PFL middleweight field.
