Costello van Steenis knocked out Fabian Edwards in front of a partisan home crowd in Madrid to register his first defense of the PFL middleweight title on Friday night.
As Edwards (16-5) attempted to take the champion down in the third round, van Steenis (18-3) landed a repeated serious of vicious elbows to finish the fight and cap off Spain’s first major global MMA event with a Spanish winner.
Edwards, who had older brother Leon in his corner, struggled to get going at all on the night with a surprising game plan of looking to wrestle with Van Steenis backfiring spectacularly.
It was the second time van Steenis has gotten one over on Edwards after his split decision win over the Brit in Bellator back in 2020.
“Thank you to all the crowd, this is yours; this is the best country in the world,” van Steenis said in the cage afterward.
“Seriously guys, Fabian is one of the best fighters in the world and so am I, so it takes two people to make a good show, right? Fabian can beat anyone in the world, and it was just my lucky night tonight.”
Real Madrid stars VinÃcius Júnior and Jude Bellingham were in attendance Friday as MMA went mainstream in Spain for the first time.
The fight began slowly with van Steenis failing to get off to one of his signature fast starts as both fighters played a part in what was seen by referee Blake Grice as periods of inactivity in the clinch, something he handed out a warning for.
Round 2 was largely the same with Edwards again choosing to wrestle with van Steenis, a decision that did not bring him joy with the Spaniard dominating the grappling exchanges throughout, even leading to the 2025 PFL tournament winner Edwards receiving two warnings from the referee for holding on to his opponent’s gloves.
After a lot of work attempting to take van Steenis down, for not much reward, Edwards began to visibly tire by the end of the second round while the champion appeared fresher and quicker, something that looked to have played a part in him getting the finish before Madrid got to see any Championship rounds.
Then came the end for Edwards after 1 minute and 28 seconds of Round 3, he once again went for a double leg with van Steenis’ back to the fence.
And this time he paid dearly for the poor decision as van Steenis, comfortably defending the grappling advances, put the Birmingham, England-born fighter to sleep with a series of short elbows all too easily to finish the bout and hold on to his middleweight belt.
Elsewhere, former Bellator champion AJ McKee served up a reminder of his PFL title credentials in the co-main event with a clinical unanimous decision win over No. 4 featherweight Adam Borics.
The American outstruck Borics throughout and landed a sumptuous double leg in the final round to wind down the clock toward a comfortable victory.