Battered and bruised, Dubuque outworks Ghareeb to seize vacant featherweight crown at CES 70

Springfield, MA – Dan Dubuque can lastly add the title of CES MMA world champion to his resume.

After developing quick in his first try to win a world title in 2019, the Waterbury, CT, captured the gold final night time at CES 70 stay on UFC FIGHT PASS® on the MassMutual Middle, defeating regional rival and former coaching companion Nathan Ghareeb by break up choice for the vacant CES MMA featherweight championship.

In a wildly entertaining, back-and-forth combat that lived as much as the billing, Dubuque’s expertise might have been the distinction. The 36-year-old veteran of 13 professional fights was cool, calm, and picked up by all 5 rounds, battling by a bloody left shin and dominating on his ft to earn the 48-47, 48-47, 47-48 victory.

Dubuque, who misplaced to Bruce Boyington in his first try at successful the featherweight title three years in the past, improved to 9-5 with Friday’s win. Ghareeb, the 28-year-old Southampton, MA, native, is now 6-2 with Friday’s loss snapping his four-fight win streak.

Dubuque hadn’t fought in additional than years previous to this weekend, having taken break day to heal nagging accidents and launch his profession outdoors of the cage. Going through a self-proclaimed MMA “nomad” who admittedly has devoted his whole life to the game, Dubuque by no means flinched, discovering his footing in rounds 3 and 4 and holding off a powerful surge from Ghareeb within the fifth to snap his personal three-fight shedding streak.

Ghareeb bloodied Dubuque’s shin with a perfectly-placed leg kick within the second spherical and seemed to be in charge of the combat till Dubuque dug deep and started placing collectively more practical two- and three-punch mixtures. An unintentional finger poke to Ghareeb’s left eye practically stopped the combat one minute into the fourth, however Ghareeb shook it off and responded within the fifth with a sequence of damaging physique blows that just about buckled Dubuque.

Judges Nick Mahmood and Bryan Miner scored it in favor of Dubuque, capping a wild night time of motion on fight sports activities’ largest streaming platform.

Within the co-main occasion, the primary sanctioned fight jiu jitsu bout in Massachusetts, Brazilian Gesias Calcavante of Florida beat Boston’s John “Doomsday” Howard in additional time.

Scheduled for one, 10-minute spherical of grappling with no standup placing – solely open-handed strikes with both one or each fighter on the bottom – the bout went into additional time, the place every fighter had the chance to change finishes and escapes over the course of three separate two-minute rounds. Calcavante received by locking Howard in a guillotine try for all the two minutes of the primary additional time spherical after which escaping Howard’s submission try in 19 seconds. Calcavante additionally escaped in 9 seconds within the second additional time, successfully successful the combat by a major time benefit.

In what might have been probably the most stunning end of the night time, Seattle’s Albert Tadevosyan, a last-minute exchange, submitted Springfield’s Pat Casey with 21 seconds remaining within the opening spherical by way of guillotine regardless of Casey dominating all the spherical. Casey peppered Tadevosyan with every little thing in his arsenal and appeared headed to a fast win, however he left his neck uncovered on a curious takedown try within the closing seconds and Tadevosyan properly locked within the choke to earn the victory, a outstanding flip of occasions. Tadevosyan is now 8-3-1 whereas Casey fell to 9-6.

Different outcomes from CES 70:

• Lightweights: Ali Zebian (9-2), Springfield, def. Sam Watford (3-4), New Haven, CT, by way of unanimous choice, 29-28, 29-28, 29-28
• Middleweights: Fran Collins (5-0), Worcester, MA, def. Mus’Aib Baiyina (0-2), Rochester, NY, by way of TKO 1:19 Spherical 3
• Featherweights: Cody Zappone (3-2), Latham, NY, def. Kenny Champion (2-3), West Haven, CT, by way of rear-naked choke submission 4:40 Spherical 2
• Flyweights: Casey Norton (2-0), Terryville, CT, def. Adrian Haly (1-2), by way of unanimous choice, 30-27, 30-27, 30-27

Roberto Villa is the CEO, Founder, Government Author, Senior Editor of FightBook MMA. Has a ardour for Fight Sports activities and likewise a podcast host for Sitting Ringside. He’s additionally a former MMA fighter and Kickboxer.