Basic HTML Version
SCRAPP! FIGHT MAGAZINE
November - 2014
29
academy noticed him and of-
fered to pay for his training.
Fernandes was a natural talent,
winning a competition just af-
ter two weeks of training. His
rise in the sport of BJJ was as-
tronomically fast as he received
his black belt in seven years at
the age of 22. His style in the
sport was extremely aggres-
sive and fast-paced, and he
became a BJJ black belt world
champion who won multiple
world championships in differ-
ent divisions. At this point he
decided to make the jump to
MMA where he had his first
professional fight in 2004 –
an impressive 31-second sub-
mission victory via rear naked
choke.
After two difficult losses, Fer-
nandes knew he needed to
learn from his mistakes and
truly become a student of the
game. In 2007 he moved to
Canada, where he met Brazil-
ian MMA legend Pele Landi,
who became his mentor and
inspiration. Armed with the
knowledge provided by Landi,
Fernandes revamped his career
and quickly became one of the
best bantamweight fighters in
the world while fighting for the
Dream promotion in Japan.
2012 was a major turning
point for Fernandes’ MMA ca-
reer when he signed for ONE
Fighting Championship (ONE
FC), the biggest MMA promo-
tion in Asia. He quickly began
dominating his opponents en
route to winning and success-
fully defending the ONE FC
Bantamweight World Champi-
onship, never losing a fight in
ONE FC ever.
Currently holding a profession-
al record of 16-3 with five sub-
mission victories, he is unani-
mously declared as one of the
top bantamweight fighters in
the world. An extremely con-
trolling and powerful grappler
capable of dictating the pace
of any fight he takes part in,
Fernandes is truly one of the
best examples, in any sport, of
an individual persevering and
overcoming adversity on his
path to achieving his dream.