Matt Bessette fights Bruce Boyington for vacant lightweight title in CES 64 main event

Two of Classic Entertainment & Sport’s most accomplished fighters are set to collide.

The promotion announced Thursday that CES veterans Matt Bessette and Bruce Boyington will fight in a vacant lightweight championship bout that headlines CES 64 on Sept. 17 at Connecticut Convention Center in Hartford, Conn. The event airs live on UFC Fight Pass.

On the line at CES 64 will not only be a vacant title, but the right for one fighter to call themselves the first to win a championship in two divisions in the promotion’s history. Bessette is a two-time CES featherweight champion, having vacated the title upon signing with the UFC in 2018 and later winning it back at CES 60 this past November.

Since 2012, Bessette (24-10, 1 NC) has competed for CES, the UFC, and Bellator among other promotions. He holds a 7-3 record in Bellator, though his UFC run wasn’t as successful. Bessette went 0-2 inside the octagon in 2018, losing decisions to Steven Peterson and Enrique Barzola. In his most recent outing, he lost a unanimous decision to Jeremy Kennedy at Bellator 253 in November.

Boyington (17-12) is also coming off of a loss, a first-round submission at the hands of UFC veteran Manny Bermudez in February of last year. Prior to that setback, Boyington won three straight fights. He is 2-1 in the CES cage, with wins over current UFC fighter Sean Soriano and Dan Dubuque. The win over Dubuque in May 2019 made Boyington the CES featherweight champion, a title he would later vacate due to inactivity.