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

Springfield, MA – Dan Dubuque can finally add the title of CES MMA World Champion to his resume.

After coming up short in his first attempt at a world title in 2019, Waterbury, CT captured gold last night at CES 70 Live at UFC FIGHT PASS® at the MassMutual Center, defeating regional rival and former training partner Nathan. Ghareeb via split decision for the vacant CES MMA Featherweight Championship.

In a wildly entertaining back-and-forth fight that lived up to the hype, Dubuque’s experience may have been the difference. The 36-year-old veteran of 13 pro fights was cool, calm and collected throughout all five rounds, battling a bloody left shin and dominating on the feet to earn the 48-47, 48-47, 47-48 victory.

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

Dubuque hadn’t fought in more than years before this weekend, having taken some time off to heal lingering injuries and launch his career outside the cage. Facing a self-proclaimed MMA “nomad” who has no doubt dedicated his entire life to the sport, Dubuque never flinched, finding his footing in rounds 3 and 4 and holding off a strong surge from Ghareeb in the fifth to break up his own bout of three. losing streak.

Ghareeb bloodied Dubuque’s shin with a perfectly placed leg kick in the second round and seemed in control of the fight until Dubuque dug deep and began putting together more effective two- and three-punch combinations. An accidental finger jab to Ghareeb’s left eye nearly stopped the fight a minute into the fourth, but Ghareeb shook himself off and responded in the fifth with a series of damaging body shots that nearly dropped Dubuque.

Judges Nick Mahmood and Bryan Miner ruled in Dubuque’s favor, capping off a wild night of action on combat sports’ biggest streaming platform.

In the co-main event, the first sanctioned combat jiu-jitsu bout in Massachusetts, Brazil’s Gesias Calcavante of Florida defeated Boston’s John “Doomsday” Howard in overtime.

Scheduled for a 10-minute round of wrestling with no standing strikes, open hand strikes only with one or both fighters on the ground, the bout dragged on, with each fighter given a chance to trade finishes and escapes on the course. of three separate two-minute rounds. Calcavante won by blocking Howard on a guillotine attempt for the full two minutes of the first round of overtime and then escaping Howard’s submission attempt in 19 seconds. Calcavante also escaped within 9 seconds in the second overtime, effectively winning the fight by a significant time advantage.

In what may have been the most surprising finish of the night, Seattle’s Albert Tadevosyan, a last-minute replacement, submitted Springfield’s Pat Casey with 21 seconds remaining in the first round via guillotine despite Casey dominating. the whole round. Casey peppered Tadevosyan with his full arsenal and seemed headed for a quick win, but left his neck exposed in a curious takedown attempt in the closing seconds and Tadevosyan wisely blocked the choke for victory, a remarkable turn of events. Tadevosyan is now 8-3-1 while Casey dropped to 9-6.

Other results from CES 70:

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

Roberto Villa is the CEO, Founder, Executive Writer and Senior Editor of FightBook MMA. He is passionate about combat sports and also hosts a podcast for Sitting Ringside. He is also a former MMA Fighter and Kickboxer.

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