Mohammad “The Latest” Fakhreddine, 35, of Lebanon will no longer compete at “BRAVE CF 35.” The Lebanese mixed martial artist has been unable to fly into Romania due to the new coronavirus (COVID-19) restrictions recently imposed in the country.

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. It marks the return of Bahrain-based MMA promotion BRAVE Combat Federation after going on hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Fakhreddine was supposed to headline “BRAVE CF 35” with Enrico “The Killing Machine” Cortese, 22, of Italy. They were set to battle it out in the middleweight bout.

Stepping in to replace Fakhreddine is kickboxer Claudiu Alexe, 27, of Romania. The latter, who holds a professional kickboxing record of 18 wins and 5 losses, will fight Cortese in the main event of “BRAVE CF 35” at a catch weight of 88kg.

Now, Fakhreddine will have to wait for his number one contender’s bout as a win against Cortese would guarantee him a shot at reigning BRAVE CF Middleweight World Champion Daniel “Gaucho” Souza, 29, of Brazil. For Cortese, a bout against Alexe is a chance to keep active and showcase that he is ready to be in the conversation for a title shot of his own at BRAVE CF.

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

Several other changes were made in the “BRAVE CF 35” fight card, as well. From four four professional MMA matches, there will be a total of six.

A lightweight bout between Andrey Barbarosa, 31, of Moldova and Aboubakar Tounkara, 30, of Mali and France was originally set as the co-main event. However, the Moldovan contender was pulled out from the card and was replaced by Marvin Belecciu, 22, of Romania.

Tounkara and Belecciu will competed in the lightweight division. The new co-main event is the heavyweight bout between Ion Grigore, 42, of Romania and Mamadou Lamine Sene, 31, of Senegal and France.

All of the four fighters in the two new bouts added are BRAVE CF debutantes fighting out of Romania. Mirel Drăgan and Olaru Marian will compete in the welterweight division while Mihai Laurentiu Iorga and Ioan “Gerula” Vrânceanu will battle it out in the bantamweight division.