“People around me motivated and praised me” - How Fabricio Andrade built up his self-esteem

'Wonder Boy' Fabricio Andrade is an impressive fighter with loads of confidence. After months of trash-talking John Lineker, it would come as a surprise to find that the Brazilian fighter was not always this naturally confident.

Andrade struggled with confidence and self-esteem early on in life due to his childhood. The 25-year-old Brazilian fighter spoke to ONE Championship in an interview and explained:

“The fact that I come from a very humble family, and I went through many difficulties, especially in my childhood [meant that I had low self-esteem]. Until I started training, I didn’t have a goal, and this messed with my head a lot. I wanted to do something different, and I couldn’t.”

Fabricio Andrade needed the support of those around him to build up his self-esteem early on in his career. Without that, he never would have made it where he is now; challenging for a world title and headlining on Amazon Prime Video. Andrade continued:

“After training and competing in the amateurs for a while, I started to receive a lot of compliments. People around me motivated and praised me, saying that I was good and that I could be a champion. I think these outside accolades started to change my mind. And my focus, which was very big, also started to help me a lot to elevate my self-esteem. Over the years, I also became more vain and more confident, and this increased [it too].”

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Fabricio Andrade looking to take the world title from John Lineker

With his long win streak mostly won by KO/TKO, Fabricio Andrade deserves to be brimming with confidence. On October 21, he will be the main event on ONE on Prime Video 3 as he looks to take the bantamweight throne from 'Hands of Stone' John Lineker.

'Wonder Boy' Andrade certainly is not struggling with self-esteem anymore. He feels that he has better skills than the heavy-handed Lineker, and it's not even close. In an interview with Asian MMA, Andrade said:

"I know we're not even close in striking levels, and especially the guy that he fought [Bibiano Fernandes], he's not on my level as well. I'm going to definitely surprise him with my skills in this fight."

'Wonder Boy' will have a chance to prove that he is levels above John Lineker when they face off in the ONE circle. Both men are coming off knockout wins in their most recent fight and will both be aiming for the KO on October 21.