Pedro Gonzalez has pulled out of his vacant featherweight title fight at CES MMA 37 against Matt Bessette due to undisclosed reasons and stepping up to replace Gonzalez in the title fight will be Stephen Cervantes.
The fight change was announced by CES MMA on Friday.
CES MMA 37 will come from the Twin River Casino in Lincoln, Rhode Island on August 12 and will be headlined by Andre Soukhamthath defending the CES MMA bantamweight title against Kin Moy.
Cervantes (6-1) will be making his CES MMA debut in this bout and enters this fight following a submission lost in May against Kyle Reyes. Prior to that defeat, he was undefeated and two of his six wins have come by submission.
“This is definitely the biggest fight of my career and there was absolutely no hesitation to take it,” Cervantes said. “It’s an honor to fight someone like Matt Bessette, and right now there’s nothing I want more than to beat him up and bring the CES MMA belt back to New Mexico. It will be an all-out brawl.”
Bessette (19-7) is currently on a four fight winning streak and three of those four wins have come by submission in the opening round. His most recent win came last month at CES MMA 36 as he stopped Ran Weathers with a guillotine choke with ten seconds left in the first round.
“I was frustrated when I first found out about Pedro, but I quickly focused my sights on Cervantes,” Bessette stated. “Ultimately it doesn’t matter who’s in there with me. I already made up my mind — I will be the CES MMA World Featherweight Champion on August 12.”
The current CES MMA 37: Soukhamthath vs. Moy II fight card is below.
Main Card: (AXS TV – 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT)
Andre Soukhamthath (10-3) vs. Kin Moy (8-2)
Matt Bessette (19-7) vs. Stephen Cervantes (6-1)
Greg Rebello (20-6) vs. Ashley Gooch (9-4)
Chuck O’Neil (16-8) vs. Roy Jones (7-4)
Joe Pingitore (6-1-1, 1NC) vs. Bill Jones (12-10)
Preliminary Card: (Unaired)
Pat McCrohan (2-0) vs. Ruslan Melikov (3-1)
Marquis Brewster (1-0) vs. Tim Wheeler (1-1)
Mak Kelleher (1-2) vs. Dylan Lockard (0-0)
Devin Carrier (1-1) vs. Connor Barry (1-0)