Champ Daniel Pereira, Lucas Martins vs. Luan Santiago 2 headline first of three Brave CF cards in Bahrain
Brave Combat Federation will return to its home country of Bahrain for a series of three cards beginning next month, and the middleweight championship will be on the line in the first show on Sept. 17.
Daniel Pereira, the company’s 185-pound titleholder, aims to defend his belt for the first time as he takes on Lebanon’s Mohammad Fakhreddine in the main event of Brave 41 in Isa Town, sources told MMA Fighting. Lightweights Lucas Martins and Luan Santiago will rematch in the co-main event.
Pereira (9-2), was signed by the UFC to compete at Dana White’s Contender Series in 2018 but was later pulled from the show due to visa issues. He is riding a five-fight winning streak with a pair of knockouts under the Brave banner.
Fakhreddine (13-4, 1 NC) makes his return to the middleweight division after competing at Brave’s openweight grand prix in 2019, when he stopped Kleber Silva before losing to 205-pounder Azamat Murzakanov in the tournament final.
Martins (20-5) and Santiago (15-4) first met in April 2018, and the UFC veteran claimed the interim lightweight belt due to an injury. Santiago was ahead in the scorecards, but ended up dislocating his elbow at 4:56 of the fifth round.
Brave also has fight cards booked for Sept. 24 and Oct. 1 in Isa Town. The company will book the first round of an eight-man flyweight grand prix in one of those shows, featuring Jose Torres vs. Sean Santella, Marcel Adur vs. Dustin Ortiz, Velimurad Alkhasov vs. Flavio de Queiroz, and Zach Makovsky vs. Abdul Hussein.