page_title: CES MMA
section_title: Championship expansion
hierarchical_section_title: CES MMA / Championship expansion
caption_attribution_description: English: CES MMA featherweight champion Rob Font
context_page_description: CES MMA is a mixed martial arts promotional firm based out of Providence, Rhode Island founded by boxing promoter Jimmy Burchfield Sr. It promoted the first sanctioned professional mixed martial event in the state of Rhode Island on September 17, 2010, at Twin River Casino.
  Since its inception, CES MMA has promoted and developed the careers of several current and former Ultimate Fighting Championships contenders, including Chuck O'Neil, Tateki Matsuda, Charles Rosa, Alex Karalexis, Thomas Egan, Dominique Steele, Rob Font and Ricardo Funch.
  Other UFC veterans to appear on CES MMA cards include David Loiseau and Drew Fickett. Several CES MMA alums have also made successful transitions to Bellator MMA, most notably Brennan Ward, who won his first three professional fights under the guidance of CES MMA before winning Bellator's middleweight tournament in 2013.
  In October 2012, CES MMA promoted its first pay-per-view event at the Dunkin' Donuts Center in Providence, featuring the professional MMA debut of former WWE wrestler Dave Bautista, before signing a multi-year broadcast deal with AXS TV in September 2014 which ended in 2019.
context_section_description: CES MMA kicked off 2013 by introducing its second title, the CES MMA lightweight championship. Campbell won the crown on February 1, 2013, at Twin River by defeating former Spanish Olympic boxer and Barcelona, Spain native Abner Lloveras by unanimous decision. It would coincidentally be the final fight of Campbell's career. Titled "Undisputed 2,"' the card was a sequel to CES MMA's "Undisputed" event in 2011 in which Chattelle won the promotion's inaugural middleweight championship.
  "Undisputed 2" was also noteworthy as the first CES MMA appearance of Font, the Boston bantamweight who earned an upset win over Saul Almeida on the undercard, beginning a stretch of six consecutive wins with CES MMA before making his UFC debut in July 2014. Font would eventually become the second fighter under CES MMA's guidance to return or advance to the UFC, preceded by Howard, who won five consecutive fights by knockout with CES MMA before returning to the UFC in August 2013.
  Font would also go on to capture CES MMA's inaugural featherweight championship with a first-round knockout win over Connecticut native Chris Foster on August 9, 2013, at Twin River in the main event of "Gold Rush."
caption: CES MMA featherweight champion Rob Font
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