{"id":44933,"date":"2026-03-20T22:28:24","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T22:28:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/44933\/"},"modified":"2026-03-20T22:28:24","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T22:28:24","slug":"joe-schilling-books-first-mma-fight-since-2019-at-pfl-brussels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/44933\/","title":{"rendered":"Joe Schilling books first MMA fight since 2019 at PFL Brussels"},"content":{"rendered":"

March 19, 2026, 8:50 a.m. ET<\/p>\n

Joe Schilling is returning to MMA competition for the first time since October 2019 and combat sports for the first time in more than two years at PFL Brussels<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Schilling (4-6), a veteran of six fights in the now-defunct Bellator organization, is set to put the MMA gloves back on for a showdown with former GLORY Kickboxing champion Donegi Abena (0-0), who will be making his MMA debut at the May 23 event from ING Arena in Brussels, Belgium (ESPN Unlimited<\/a>).<\/p>\n

A person with knowledge of matchup verified the booking to MMA Junkie on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Schilling, 42, made his exit from MMA following a knockout loss to Tony Johnson at Bellator 229. He had a pair of fights scratched in the following years before facing former UFC champ Luke Rockhold at Karate Combat 45 in April 2024, which he lost by third-round knockout.<\/p>\n

He now makes his return in what should be an all-striking affair with Abena, who went 31-11 during his kickboxing career with losses to notables such as Alex Pereira<\/a>, Artem Vakhitov and Jairzinho Rozenstruik.<\/p>\n

At 28, Abena signed with PFL in December and now finally has his promotional debut set.<\/p>\n

The latest PFL Brussels card now includes:Patrick Habirora vs. Benson HendersonJake Hadley vs. Taylor LapilusBoris Mbarga Atangana vs. Jared GoodenAsael Adjoudj vs. Keisuke SasuBaris Adiguzel vs. Gustavo Oliveira\"\"\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"March 19, 2026, 8:50 a.m. ET Joe Schilling is returning to MMA competition for the first time since…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":44934,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104],"tags":[2952,211,210,18712,18713,25528,25527,18714,1499,18716,1498,1495],"class_list":{"0":"post-44933","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brussels","8":"tag-accessfree","9":"tag-belgium","10":"tag-brussels","11":"tag-sstssportspfl","12":"tag-sstsnpfl","13":"tag-tagalex-pereira","14":"tag-tagespn-inc","15":"tag-tagmartial-arts","16":"tag-tagoverall-positive","17":"tag-tagpfl","18":"tag-tagsports-news","19":"tag-typestory"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@dk\/116263865783647033","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44933\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}