RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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See the full story · 1 sourcesBryan
Battle has opened up about dealing with personal issues ahead
of his
Professional Fighters League debut.
Battle made his promotional debut against Johnny
Eblen in Pittsburgh this past March. He looked completely out
of his depth as Eblen repeatedly slammed him on the canvas before
making him tap to a face crank in the opening round. Bryan Battle Opens Up On Divorce, UFC Release Before PFL
Debut
Battle claims he couldn’t give his 100% in training for the fight
against Eblen. “The Butcher” revealed that issues like his divorce
and exit from the
Ultimate Fighting Championship were cluttering his mind going
into his PFL debut. Battle believes the lopsided beatdown from
Eblen has taught him the hard way to give maximum effort going
forward.
“I learned lessons,” Battle told Ariel Helwani. “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. Thought we could get away with that. This game demands
everything you got… Over the past year, 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.
Cause I just had parts of me spread out in different areas of life.
Sometimes it takes an ass whooping like that to be like, ‘All my
eggs are gonna be in one basket.’” A lightweight
title fight headlines PFL NY: Tune on Friday, July 31 at 7 p.m. ET
on ESPN .
Battle (12-3) earned his UFC contract by winning the 29th season of
“The Ultimate Fighter” in the middleweight bracket in 2021. He was
then released from the UFC last year due to a string of weight
misses, despite going 7-1 in the promotion. Battle is now scheduled
to fight Dalton
Rosta (11-3) in his sophomore PFL bout on Aug. 7 at Bojangles
Coliseum in Charlotte, North Carolina. Bryan
Battle opens up about the struggles he faced leading into his
PFL debut against Johnny
Eblen : "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… pic.twitter.com/7r2YGAzC5E — Ariel
Helwani (@arielhelwani)
July 29, 2026
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