Next Striking Star: ONE’s Fabricio de Andrade
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Hailing from Fortaleza, Ceara, Brazil Fabricio “Wonderboy” de Andrade is arguably the best up-and-coming fighter in ONE Championship. Before coming to MMA, he had an extensive muay thai career with over forty fights. Competing at the age of 13 in muay thai, Andrade would end up accumulating a record of 40-3.
When Andrade signed to ONE, he was just 3-2 and had basically zero hype. He made his promotional debut against Mark Abelardo who was 19-7 at the time and had far more MMA experience. Andrade then fought Shoko Sato who was 31-13-2, and at one point ranked #2 in the division. Next, he fought Kaiwen Li who is a legit fighter. Then came Jeremy Pacatiw, who was a respected fighter out of the Philippines. His last opponent was Won II Kwon, who is ranked #3 now. Andrade is now 5-0 in ONE, and at the time, he beat those all of those guys who had a combined 81-31 record.
“Wonderboy” is a special striker who is well-equipped everywhere. On the feet, Andrade is undoubtedly where he wants to be. But he can grapple as well… Two of his wins come by submission with the rear-naked choke. Andrade is someone I can’t imagine anyone is wanting to test on the feet. The big issue is taking him down because his takedown defense is solid.
Even when you close the distance on him, you have to deal with his nasty clinch work. His muay thai base has been a massive factor in his MMA career. Andrade throws nasty knees and he is lethal with those elbows when framing off.
With his muay thai style, you see Andrade use a lot of knees. Not just in the clinch but he throws a lot of step-in knees to close the distance.
Andrade has clinical striking. He’s technically sound with his hands… Andrade is active with the jab, mainly throwing with his right hand. Andrade gets the credit due to his muay thai, but it’s really his jab that sets his striking far apart from others. He does not just use his jab to dictate the pace, but to set up all the other weapons he throws.
The Brazilian snipes on the outside with his jab while going backwards, as well as displays nice head movement and really good footwork. His right jab is his tone setter and his left hand is the climax. Andrade is a clinical striker that’s always putting it together, never repetitive with his attacks, and always throwing different patterns.
His striking is at such a high level because of his shot selection, timing, ability to mix up his shots, movement, jab, and his vision. His bodywork has been nasty with his left kick to the liver. Going to the body so often and then going up high has been such a valuable trait he has.
In all Brazilian fighters, jiu-jitsu is in their blood. Andrade may be a striking specialist, but the man has two submission victories. You won’t see Andrade necessarily shoot for takedowns, but you will at times see him trip/throw guys down from in the clinch. Maybe guys are okay when giving up their back to Andrade because of his striking pedigree. That’s proved to be a mistake as both his submissions come from a rear-naked choke.
Andrade is a 25-year-old from Fortaleza, Ceara, Brazil. With some time spent in the past training at Nova Uniao with Jose Aldo, it’s Tiger Muay Thai that’s been his home. Day in and day out, Andrade is training with some of the nastiest fighters in one of the most respected gyms in the world. Andrade could become the third Brazilian to win the ONE bantamweight champion behind Bibiano Fernandes, and the current champ John Lineker. Lineker is 4-0 inside the ONE cage and this fight with Andrade will be his first title defense attempt.
Fabricio de Andrade fight for gold against the current champ and one of the most dangerous men in MMA, John “Hands of Stone” Lineker will be live on October 21st, exclusively on Amazon Prime.
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