Mohammad “The Latest” Fakhreddine, 35, of Lebanon and Enrico “The Killing Machine” Cortese, 22, of Italy will headline “BRAVE CF 35.” The upcoming mixed martial arts event marks the return of Bahrain-based MMA promotion BRAVE Combat Federation after going on hiatus due to the new coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemitc.

In association with Romanian MMA promotion Real Xtreme Fighting (RXF), BRAVE CF will hold “BRAVE CF 35” at Berăria H in Bucharest, Romania on July 20, 2020. The fight card has four professional MMA matches.

Including Lebanon and Italy, eight countries will be represented at “BRAVE CF 35.” The others are France, Mali, Moldova, Romania, Senegal and Sweden.

Fakhreddine is the only fighter representing Lebanon while Cortese is the sole representative of Italy. Both fighters look to make history by becoming the first world champions from their respective countries.

In the main event, Fakhreddine and Cortese will battle it out in the middleweight division. The winner of that fight will be in pole position to challenge reigning BRAVE CF Middleweight World Champion Daniel “Gaucho” Souza, 29, of Brazil.

Holding a professional MMA record of 13 wins, 4 losses, 0 draw and 1 No Contest, Fakhreddine is one of the Middle East’s biggest MMA stars. From 2017 to 2019, he had eight BRAVE CF fights, one of which ended in a No Contest.

After two BRAVE CF victories in the welterweight division, Fakhreddine was supposed to challenge then reigning BRAVE CF Welterweight World Champion Carl “The Bomber” Booth, 29, of England in 2017. However, the Lebanese MMA fighter fell ill during the weight cut so he did not compete for the belt.

In BRAVE CF, Fakhreddine fought Tahar “Fast Hands” Hadbi, 32, of Algeria and France twice. Their first encounter in 2017 ended in a No Contest while the French-Algerian fighter won in their rematch in 2018.

After fighting Hadbi twice, Fakhreddine decided to reinvent himself and move up to middleweight. In 2019, he fought at the first ever KHK Open Weight World Championship, beating Kleber “Orgulho” Silva, 32, of Brazil in the semi-finals but lost to Azamat “The Professional” Murzakanov, 30, of Russia in the final.

On the other hand, Cortese is coming out of his successful BRAVE CF debut. On November 23, 2019, he defeated Jorick Montagnac, 26, of France at “BRAVE CF 30” at the Gachibowli Indoor Stadium in Hyderabad, India.

Cortese is riding a five-bout winning streak. She has 6 wins, 2 losses, 0 draw and 1 No Contest.