Fabricio Andrade looks back at early struggles in martial arts career competing in China

Reigning and undisputed ONE bantamweight MMA world champion ‘Wonder Boy’ Fabricio Andrade is one of the most talented mixed martial artists in the world. He is without a doubt among the most exciting and most dangerous fighters on planet Earth.

But despite his immense success on the biggest global stage for martial arts competition, Andrade comes from very humble beginnings. At one point in his career, ‘Wonder Boy’ was plying the kickboxing ranks in mainland China, as well as struggling to get by financially whilst living in a foreign country.

In a special guest appearance on the Honey Badger Hour podcast on Spotify, Andrade talked about his struggles in detail.

The 25-year-old Brazilian phenom said:

“For me, I had to go through a lot of bad situations, I had nowhere to go, I was out of money. When I had a problem with the manager in China, he told me I had to go out of the gym, and he owed me like US$600, and he didn’t give me any of this money. So I had like US$100, and I had nowhere to go. At that point, my family tried to text me to go back to Brazil, but I was like, I can’t go back to Brazil. And then I tried to find a way.”

Today, Andrade is on top of the combat sports world, and is ready to claim two-sport supremacy in his next fight.

reigning ONE bantamweight MMA world champion ‘Wonder Boy’ Fabricio Andrade is set to face ONE bantamweight Muay Thai world champion ‘The General’ Jonathan Haggerty.

The two are set to lock horns at ONE Fight Night 15 on Prime Video on October 6, and the fight will be for the ONE interim bantamweight kickboxing world title.

ONE Fight Night 15 is available to fans in the United States and Canada live and absolutely free with an active Amazon Prime Video subscription.