Professional Fighters League (PFL) is just a couple of days in front of its upcoming PFL Madrid MMA event, locked and loaded for Fri., March 20, 2026 at Palacio Vistalegre in Madrid, Spain. The card will be headlined by middleweight champion and hometown hero Costello “The Spaniard” Van Steenis (17-3), who defends his 185-pound strap against 2025 PFL middleweight tournament champion Fabian “The Assassin” Edwards (16-4).
PFL Madrid streams live at 1 p.m. ET on the ESPN+ digital network.
Van Steenis,
33, defeated the 32 year-old Edwards by split decision when they first went to war as part of the Bellator Milan event back in late 2020. That victory kicked off a 5-1 run for “The Spaniard,” who remains undefeated under the PFL banner after finishing Johnny Eblen last summer in Cape Town.
“What I remember from the first Fabian Edwards fight is that he had a very long reach, but I also remember that I didn’t feel any knockout power from him,” Van Steenis said. “If I look back at that fight honestly, I never really felt in danger. Not from his punches, not really from anything. He did take me down, but he couldn’t really control me. I was very gassed at that moment, but even then I never really felt in danger. To be honest, Fabian’s like a one-trick donkey, almost everything comes off the left side of his body — his kicks, his punches, the way he manages distance. I’ve studied him, he’s studied me, and now we’re going to see who the better man is.”
Van Steenis has 13 finishes in 17 wins.
“It’s going to be a violent beatdown on my side,” Van Steenis continued. “I’m going in with a lot of confidence, a lot of violence, and also respect, because I’m not just going in there like some crazy man. But I am going for the finish. I’m going for the finish from round one to round five, and I do not believe this fight is going to make it to the championship rounds. With this performance on March 20 in Vista Alegre in Madrid, I’m going to show not only Fabian, not only his team, not only my team, but the whole world, the whole universe watching, that the title win was not a fluke and not just some lucky finish in the last 10 seconds. I can really beat everybody. I just finished a guy who was 16-0, a guy people thought was unbeatable, and now I’m going to put a highlight on somebody again.”
Edwards is coming off three straight wins, two by way of knockout.
“In my heart, I don’t believe I lost that first fight,” Edwards said. “Especially in the third round, I felt like I controlled most of it compared to the success he had. There wasn’t much in that fight that really stuck with me in terms of danger. There wasn’t anything where I thought, ‘This guy feels so strong,’ or ‘This guy feels so powerful.’ There wasn’t anything he did that made me come away thinking his kicks were really hard or anything like that. For me, what’s going to lead to my victory is my fight IQ. When I hear people talk only about strength, fitness, and all that, I don’t really focus on that. I know I’m not weak. I know I’m not broken. What I focus on is the fight itself. I study the man in front of me and ask who can make the better decisions under pressure. That’s what fighting is. If both guys have prepared hard, then on the night it comes down to who makes the right decisions and who can pull someone into their kind of fight. In my heart, I believe I’ll be able to make him fight my fight.”
Edwards stopped Dalton Rosta to win the middleweight tourney finals last August.
“When this fight got made, I said I thought it would be a round three or round four finish,” Edwards added. “I see it being a TKO. At the same time, we’re preparing for 25 minutes of a grueling fight, but I really don’t believe it’s going to go that far. I honestly think I’ll get him out of there. Costello fights with a lot of intent and commitment, and that style burns energy. Once you start burning out in a fight, it’s hard to pull it back when there’s another guy in front of you still throwing shots and attacking you. He really commits to his takedowns, his defense, and his shots, but you can only do that so many times before it starts to come back and bite you. I’m tough. I’m not a soft kid. I can take his shots.”
Here are the latest PFL Madrids odds and betting lines courtesy of BetOnline.ag.
Costello van Steenis -125
Fabian Edwards -105
Adam Borics +285
AJ Mckee -360
Yassin Najid +385
Franco Tenaglia -510
Benita van Rooij +145
Jacinta Austin -175
Jose Augusto +100
Linton Vassell -130
Luciano Pereira -160
Kevin Cordero +130
Rafael Calderon +130
Borja Garcia -160
Mark Ewen -185
Gino van Steenis +155
Ernesto Schisano -260
Mattia Giordano +200
Claudio Pacella -500
David Mora +375
Mathys Duragrin +190
Ignacio Campos -240
For much more on the upcoming PFL Madrid event click here.
