“It’s been very difficult for me to make it to the top” – Fabricio Andrade recalls struggles in the early days of his fighting career

Reigning ONE bantamweight MMA world champion Fabricio Andrade had to scratch and claw his way to the top of the mountain.

Nine months removed from the stellar fourth-round knockout of John Lineker to claim the bantamweight MMA title, ‘Wonder Boy’ will return to the global stage this Friday night with the opportunity to claim a second world championship as he meets Jonathan Haggerty.

The two striking sensations will strap on the eight-ounce gloves to crown a new ONE bantamweight kickboxing king in the ONE Fight Night 16 main event inside the legendary Lumpinee Boxing Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand.

Looking back on his career and the rocky road he took to get to where he is today, Fabricio Andrade suggested that his doubters are the ones that ultimately made him work harder, lending to his incredible success in martial arts.

“Yeah, this is something that I remind myself every day, you know, because it’s not been easy for me coming from a city that doesn’t have many fighters,” Andrade said in a recent interview with FightWave.

He continued:

“Coming from a family that doesn’t have money, it’s been very difficult for me to make it to the top. So I wanted to go the hard way, you know, I had to go through MMA. At that time I was 3-2, my record was 3-2, so nothing impressive. So I had a lot of people doubting me, people were saying I was a kickboxer, not an MMA fighter.”

Fabricio Andrade enters the bout undefeated in ONE Championship, with sensational knockouts over Jeremy Pacatiw, Kwon Won Il, and the aforementioned John Lineker to claim the bantamweight MMA title.

Will ‘Wonder Boy’ leave the Mecca of Muay Thai with a second ONE world title wrapped around his waist?

Amazon Prime Video subscribers in North America can catch all the action at ONE Fight Night 16: Haggerty vs. Andrade on Prime Video live in U.S. primetime on Friday, November 3.