Bryan Battle has revealed that his one-sided loss in his PFL debut had far more going on behind the scenes than fans realized.
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Speaking with Ariel Helwani ahead of his return to the SmartCage on August 7 at PFL Charlotte, the former UFC fighter admitted that a series of personal and professional setbacks, including his divorce and UFC release, prevented him from fully committing to preparing for his PFL debut fight against former Bellator champion Johnny Eblen in March.
“You know, you gotta give Johnny credit,” Battle said. “He was definitely on. I think the version of Johnny I fought did better than the version of Johnny that fought like two weeks ago. But, yeah, man, I mean, for me, it was just like a lot of stuff in life in general going on.
“I learned lessons, not just, one, there was like, there was definitely like a little bit of a curve. Like once again, headlining, being the last fight, fighting a bona fide former world champion, not just like training with him in the gym but fighting with him in the cage.”
The 31-year-old opened up about the personal issues that weighed on him before the fight. Bryan Battle admitted he tried to push through those struggles but ultimately paid the price inside the cage.
“I’m not gonna get too deep into it, but it’s just like, over the past year, it’s just been a lot of things happening,” he added. “I got divorced, got cut from the UFC. Dealing with all those things, I was doing the best I could, but I wasn’t giving it everything I had, if that makes sense. Because I had just part of me, parts of me like spread out in different areas of life.
“And sometimes it takes like an a– whooping like that to be like, okay, no, f—– all my eggs gotta be in one basket if I’m gonna do this at the highest level. There’s no margin for error. In preparation, there’s no wiggle room.”
The first-round submission loss to Johnny Eblen on the PFL Pittsburgh card in March, he said, became a wake-up call. But now, ‘The Butcher’ believes he’s in a much better place heading into his second PFL appearance.
“So, this one (I’m) coming in looking better,” he added. “Got abs again. F——, been very fortunate. I’ve been out. This just kind of like happenstance that I just happened to end out in Phoenix.
“Training at the MMA Lab the past couple months has been awesome. Just being able to pick Coach Crouch’s mind, pick the minds of people like Benson Henderson, Razor Rob, a bunch of legends.”
In the UFC, Bryan Battle initially competed at middleweight before moving down to welterweight in 2022, but struggled on the scales. He missed weight before fights with Gabe Green and Randy Brown before returning to 185 pounds.
However, that move up to middleweight didn’t help the situation either, as he came in at 190 pounds ahead of his scheduled fight against Nursulton Ruziboev at UFC 319 in August 2025, resulting in the fight being canceled. Soon after, the UFC announced that they had cut him from the roster—an outcome that ‘The Butcher’ actually wanted to achieve, as per a veteran.
Now, the 31-year-old won’t have to wait long for an opportunity to prove he has turned things around.
Bryan Battle looks to bounce back against Dalton Rosta
The former Ultimate Fighter winner is all geared up to go one-on-one against Dalton Rosta in the main event of the PFL’s August 7 card at the Bojangles Coliseum in Charlotte, North Carolina. Although ‘The Butcher’ was born in Missouri, he grew up and continues to train in Charlotte, making the event something of a homecoming.
His opponent enters the bout hoping to put a stop to his own losing streak. Rosta, a former Bellator fighter, advanced to the PFL middleweight tournament final in 2025 before suffering consecutive knockout losses to Fabian Edwards and Impa Kasanganay.
For Bryan Battle, the contest is an opportunity to put his disappointing PFL debut behind him. After admitting that personal issues prevented him from fully committing to his preparation against Eblen, he’ll now have the opportunity to prove whether the lessons learned from that defeat translate into a better performance inside the SmartCage.
