Fabricio Andrade embraces the opportunity to be called a world champion at age 25

Very few fighters receive the honor of winning a major world title in MMA by 25, but Fabricio Andrade is among the lucky few.

Just 12 fights into his professional career, Fabricio Andrade beat John Lineker to win ONE Championship’s bantamweight world title last weekend in Bangkok, Thailand.

Battling back and forth with the former world champion over four rounds, the victory was sealed for Andrade when John Lineker’s corner called the fight before round five.

Andrade was ecstatic with the win and posted a photo of his victory to his Instagram account. An English translation of his caption commemorated his win, stating that he’d dreamed of that moment his whole life:

“I dreamed of this moment for a long time, the happiness of being able to be called a world champion at the age of 25”

Even though Fabricio Andrade is young, he’s actually been fighting for almost a decade.

After competing in kickboxing in his early years, he made his professional MMA debut in 2014. Over the next five years, the Brazilian fought only once a year and missed out on 2015 altogether. It wasn’t until he signed with ONE Championship in 2020 that he began fighting more regularly, where’s unbeaten in seven fights.

The young Brazilian has fought all over the world, including Kazakhstan, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, China, and his home country of Brazil.

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Fabricio Andrade targets Stephen Loman in first world title defence

The wounds are still healing from Fabricio Andrade’s four-round war with John Lineker, but the new world champion is already starting to dream of the future.

In his emotional post-fight interview with Mitch Chilson, Andrade gave his thoughts about who a potential next opponent could be:

“We already got a contender in line. [Stephen] Loman, you want this? Come and get it.”

When the official ONE Championship rankings are updated, it’s possible Filipino bantamweight Stephen Loman could sit at number two in the division. Loman, like Andrade, is undefeated in ONE Championship.

Stephen Loman is another young striker pegged as the division’s future, having dominated his first three opponents in the ONE Circle. The Team Lakay representative beat a former world champion in Bibiano Fernandes in his last fight, a unanimous decision victory at ONE on Prime Video 4 last November. Before that, he scored wins over Yusup Saadulaev and Shoko Sato.

A fight between Andrade and Loman would pit two aggressive styles of striking against each other. However, if Loman isn’t willing to wait for Andrade to heal and return to competition, he could take on another challenger in the division.

When Fabricio Andrade makes the first defense of his world title potentially later down the line in 2023, one of ONE Championship’s emerging young stars will once again get the chance to prove himself against the world’s elite bantamweights.