Mohammad Fakhreddine (©Brave Combat Federation)

Mohammad “The Latest” Fakhreddine, 35, of Lebanon is the new middleweight champion of BRAVE Combat Federation. The Lebanese mixed martial artist dethroned Daniel “Gaúcho” Souza Pereira, 28, of Brazil, the Bahrain-based MMA promotion’ sinaugural middleweight champion.

On September 17, 2020, Pereira and Fakhreddine headlined “BRAVE CF 41” at the Bahrain National Stadium in East Riffa, Bahrain. It was the Brazilian MMA fighter’s first titled defense as the BRAVE CF Middleweight World Champion.

Declan Larkin served as the referee of the title bout. He put a stop to the middleweight contest after 1 minute and 8 seconds in the fourth round when Fakhreddine knocked out Pereira.

Winning at “BRAVE CF 41” improved Fakhreddine’s professional MMA record to 14 wins, 4 losses, 0 draw and 1 No Contest. On the other hand, Pereira now has 9 wins and 3 losses.

Pereira became the inaugural BRAVE CF Middleweight Champion on December 7, 2019 in the main event of “BRAVE CF 31” at the Sibaya Casino in Durban, Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa where he defeated Chad “Superman” Hanekom, 27, of Sunninghill, South Africa. It was the second BRAVE CF event in South Africa and its main event was the first ever MMA world title contested in Africa.

On August 30, 2019, Pereira made his BRAVE CF debut at “BRAVE CF 25” at the Minas Tenis Clube Arena in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil. He knocked out Bruno “Brunao” Assis, 27, of Belo Horizonte.

Fakhreddine was supposed to headline “BRAVE CF 35” with Enrico “The Killing Machine” Cortese, 22, of Italy at Berăria H in Bucharest, Romania on July 20, 2020. However, the Lebanese MMA fighter unable to fly into Romania due to the new coronavirus (COVID-19) restrictions recently imposed in the country.

From 2017 to 2019, Fakhreddine had eight BRAVE CF fights, one of which ended in a No Contest. After two BRAVE CF victories in the welterweight division, he was supposed to challenge then reigning BRAVE CF Welterweight World Champion Carl “The Bomber” Booth, 29, of England in 2017 but 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.