Tomorrow night, the animosity between two high-level New England heavyweights will get put to sleep when William Knight (11-5) and Dominos Barros (7-1) get locked in the cage to determine the NEW CES MMA Heavyweight World Champion.
This very well could be the biggest and most anticipated fight in CES MMA history. For weeks, the two have been going back and fourth on Instagram, expressing their feelings and letting each other know how hard they'd been working. William Knight will come in with the experience advantage. Knight comes from Thornton MMA in East Hartford, CT and is freshly back to the regional scene after returning from his UFC career.
While competing in the UFC, Knight was able to fight "cream of the crop" light heavyweights and heavyweights like Da Un Jung, Alonzo Menifield, Marcin Prachino, and more. He is a battle tested opponent with much experience and comes in with "ox-like" strength. Knight is one of the strongest fighters in the game.
His opponent, Domingos Barros, fights out of Regiment Training Center alongside fellow New England heavyweight Yorgan De Castro. Barros has fought for Bellator, Combat FC, and Portuguese promotions as well. Barros has recorded 56% of his wins by KO with the others by decision. Barros has yet to win a fight by submission, compared to Knights one-win by submission.
These two love to stand and bang, and so this one should be an absolute slugfest with story lines abound. Today, before the ceremonial weigh-ins, things got very heated when these two got into each others faces and began exchanging words. In between these two men were coaches, training partners, but also UFC Featherweight, Charles Rosa. The full video can be found on NEMMA Facebook page. This fight is going to be one of the biggest things to talk about this weekend, and its going to be FIREWORKS, I can promise you that.
In the co-main event, rising Lightweight from Fighting Arts Academy in Milford, CT, Eddy George, will take a step up when he meets Georgia's Yemi Oduwole. Yemi was riding a four fight win streak before his most recent opponent, Landon Quinones put a halt to that steam-train at Titan FC 80 back in November. This will be Yemi's first appearance of 2023 and Eddy's second. Back in March at Combat Zone 79, George got his 2023 started off on the right foot, putting on a striking clinic and out-lasting the tough and gritty Jerome Featherstone. The two are both looking for a big moment and with the endurance and pace pushing that both these fighters routinely display, fans are in for something special.
Alex Gilpin (14-4) jumps in on very short notice for Massachusetts's Brendon Marotte, who pulled out of the fight for undisclosed reasons. Gilpin is set to take on Teixeira MMA's Regivaldo Carvalho (7-4). Gilpin comes off a 5 fight PFL run, competing in the 2019 season. Gilpin has not fought since his rematch with Lance Palmer in December of 2019. He took this fight on less than a weeks notice which is absolutely crazy.
Regivaldo is a very high level opponent himself. Training in a room full of killers at Teixeira MMA, Regivaldo trains with fighters like Alex Pereira, Glover Teixeira, Marcos Breno, Wellington Turman, and more. Regivaldo will be looking to make a statement against an established opponent with a strong resume and Gilpin will be looking to make some noise in his return to the cage since December of 2021.
James Murrin (3-5) fights out of New Bedford, MA and will welcome Ohio's Shawn Rall (4-8) to the bright lights of the North Shore Music Theatre in Beverly, MA for a three round bout in the featherweight division.
9th ranked New England featherweight Travis Demko (3-0) will be dropping down to 135 pounds as he returns after a first round submission win over Josh Krejci (1-2) at Combat FC 3 in February. Demko returns looking to go 4-0 and continue his 100% finish rate. He will fight the more experienced fighter in Shawn Jackson (3-4) who made the trip for CES 73.
Ramano Medina (1-0) returns after his first professional debut at Combat Zone 77 in August of 2022 when he beat Cedric Lochard. Since then Ramano has had two fights cancelled but finally gets to fight here at CES 73 against a very tough Sam Watford (3-4), a fighter whose fought all over in different promotions like Bellator, CES, Premier FC. and Cage Wars. This fight will consist of one man looking to shake off the ring rust and another looking to continue his win streak to two come Friday night. Stay tuned to watch these two lightweights go to work.
Boston's Jon Ciampa will look to continue his win streak and improve to 2-0 after an impressive triangle choke victory over Jerrell Nettles at CES 71. His opponent, Mus'aib Baiyina (0-2) looks to notch his first professional win after losing to both Yuri Panferov by armbar and Fran Collins by ground and pound. Baiyina will look to pick up his first win while handing Ciampa his first loss.
Felipe Soares De Silva and Oscar Vera will make their professional debuts at CES 73. On top of that, four amateur fighters will also make their day debuts:
Alex Gitelman (Brooklyn, NY) vs. Jonathan Rivera (Hartford, CT)
Wyatt Knopfke (Boston, MA) vs. Vincent Devoll (Fall River, MA)
Lucas Rosa (6-1) will also return to New England for CES 73. After transitioning and moving to South Florida to pursue fighting at a higher level, Lucas will return home to fight. Lucas believes he is the best amateur in the country, reeling off great performances one after another. In his interview with NEMMA's Dylan Napoleone, Lucas Rosa mentioned that moving to South Florida was a big reason why. He will take on Connecticut's tough and experienced Randy Francis (6-9).
Francis has been in some of the biggest and most exciting fights around. One advantage for Rosa is the fact that he's been very active. He began his amateur's career just two years ago. Francis is coming off nearly a one year lay off but does have the overall experience. Lucas Rosa will look to keep his hot streak rolling and improve to 8-1 following his kickboxing fight just four weeks ago. It'll be exciting to see if Lucas Rosa can keep his hot streak alive versus the experienced Rady Francis.
Stay tuned, New England MMA will be on hand at CES 73 with live play-by-play and other coverage of the event.
