Gegard Mousasi has spent his long career piling up wins and accomplishments, quietly establishing himself as one of the best middleweights in the history of the game. On the main event night of Bellator 282 from Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut, Mousasi bumped into Rebel Eblen, a young unbowed fighter who brought an excellent game plan to the cage to gain Mousasi’s middleweight championship.
Eblen wasted very little time proving that he would gift several issues of Mousasi, shift stances, and whipping huge overhand lefts and rights that found Mousasi’s chin repeatedly. One among those shots, a crushing right, hurt and dropped Mousasi within the opening round.
Eblen’s wrestling base also quickly became an element as he was able to use takedowns and a communication system in between his serious punches. The threat of the takedown appeared to mostly freeze Mousasi, inflicting the champion to never freely let his strikes select worry of opening himself up to a takedown.
Mousasi mostly leaned on his jab and leg kicks however nearly all purposeful action within the fight came from Eblen as he controlled nearly every moment of the fight, whether or not on the feet or the ground.
Eblen’s confidence solely grew as the rounds ticked by, permitting him to feature a small amount of showboating after landing late combos.
After the complete five-round distance, Eblen was awarded the fight by clean scorecards of 50-45, granting Eblen the Bellator middleweight championship in mere his twelfth career fight.
Mousasi suffered simply his second loss since 2016, a stretch that has coated a five-fight run to finish his UFC career and 7 wins within the Bellator cage, as well as 2 separate reigns as middleweight champion.
