Rivalries: Fabian Edwards

Fabian Edwards no longer has to worry about the whims of matchmakers.

The Team Renegade standout will confront Impa Kasanganay when their Professional Fighters League middleweight quarterfinal serves as the PFL 2025 World Tournament 3 headliner on Friday at Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida. Edwards enters the cage on the heels of a strong run in the Bellator MMA organization. The younger brother of former Ultimate Fighting Championship welterweight titleholder Leon Edwards, he has nailed down more than half (seven) of his 13 professional victories by knockout, technical knockout or submission.

Fighters only get one shot! Watch the PFL World Tournament LIVE Friday, April 18 at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN and ESPN+.

As Edwards moves ever closer to his high-stakes showdown with Kasanganay, a look at a few of the rivalries that have helped shape his career to this point:

Costello van Steenis

The Dutchman eked out a three-round split decision and handed Edwards his first professional setback in the Bellator Milan 2 main event on Sept. 26, 2020 at Allianz Cloud in Milan, Italy. Judges Douglas Crosby and Sal D’Amato struck 28-27 and 29-28 scorecards for van Steenis, while Jerin Valel saw it 29-28 for Edwards. In what was Bellator’s first European event since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, the middleweights spent the first five minutes sizing up each other. Van Steenis executed a takedown in the second round, where he made a pass at a guillotine choke and connected with some significant ground-and-pound. However, his pace slowed to a relative crawl in Round 3. Edwards made his move, took down “The Spaniard” with an inside trip and proceeded to maul him with punishing blows on the canvas. It was enough to procure a 10-8 round from Crosby but failed the net the stoppage he needed.

Lyoto Machida

Edwards wiped out an icon when he put away the former UFC light heavyweight champion with an elbow strike and follow-up punches in the Bellator 281 co-headliner on May 13, 2022 at The SSE Arena in London. Machida succumbed to blows 3:18 into Round 1. The karateka probed with leg kicks from the center of the cage and hunted for openings before he crashed into the clinch and flirted with a takedown. Edwards connected with a crushing elbow on the break, pushed him to the canvas behind a follow-up left hook and smashed him with punches until the job was done. He joined Mauricio “Shogun” Rua and Derek Brunson as the only men to ever stop Machida inside one round.

Gegard Mousasi

Edwards put another career-changing feather in his cap when he outdueled the former Bellator MMA, Dream, Strikeforce and Cage Warriors Fighting Championship titleholder to a unanimous decision in the Bellator 296 main event on May 12, 2023 at Accor Arena in Paris. All three judges scored it 49-46. Edwards surprised “The Dreamcatcher” with an ability to hold his own in the standup exchanges. He salted away the win in the fifth round, where he tied up Mousasi, tripped him to the floor and progressed to his back. Edwards secured his position with a body triangle, then ran through a series of attempted chokes. Mousasi was wise to his efforts, but his inability to spring a reversal and get back to his feet cost him valuable time and allowed the Englishman to coast to the finish line.

Johnny Eblen

The unbeaten American Top Team brute retained the undisputed Bellator MMA middleweight championship when he dismissed Edwards with elbows and punches in the third round of their Bellator 299 headliner on Sept. 23, 2023 at 3Arena in Dublin. Eblen drew the curtain 21 seconds into Round 3, moving to 14-0 with his first finish in almost two years. Edwards managed to cut the champion with a close-quarters elbow between the eyes in the second round but offered little else in terms of meaningful resistance. Eblen floored the Jamaican-born Englishman with a thudding right hand to start the third round, followed it with a brutal elbow strike and closed the deal with a burst of unanswered punches. They rematched a little more than a year later under the Professional Fighters League banner, as Eblen again retained his Bellator middleweight crown, this time by five-round unanimous decision.