Sixteen years of training distilled into one moment. Joao Pedro Bueno Mendes finally reaches the stage he’s chased since childhood.
The 28-year-old IBJJF World Champion faces Fabricio Andrey in a featherweight submission grappling clash at ONE Fight Night 40 on Friday, February 13, inside Lumpinee Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand.
Mendes carries a 92-34 record into his promotional debut. The numbers tell one story. The hunger behind them tells another. Capturing the 2025 IBJJF World Championship represented the realization of a dream that started when he stepped onto mats at 11 years old.
That victory changed everything. Two weeks passed before the magnitude fully registered. World Champion. The title he’d thought about every single day for 16 years finally belonged to him.
But dreams don’t stop at one accomplishment. The opportunities in no-gi grappling beckoned immediately after securing his gi championship. Bigger fights, super-fights, financial rewards that transform careers. Mendes saw the path forward and seized it without hesitation.
“To be honest, I’ve always wanted to fight at the big stage like ONE,” he said. “I think it’s the biggest stage in our sport.”
Joao Pedro Bueno Mendes seeks redemption against Fabricio Andrey
Joao Pedro Bueno Mendes and Fabricio Andrey share history. They met at the Pan American tournament in 2021. Andrey won that encounter, and the Brazilian understands a fundamental truth about competitive combat sports.
Victories fade from memory quickly. Defeats never leave. That’s why he remembers their first meeting vividly while Andrey might struggle to recall specific details. Losses brand themselves permanently into a fighter’s consciousness.
Still, Mendes doesn’t obsess over revenge. He views February 13 as an opportunity to test himself against elite no-gi competition rather than settling old scores. Andrey represents one of the division’s most dangerous fighters, and big challenges have always motivated him more than grudges.
Andrey’s unpredictable creativity makes preparation complex. Flying armbars, wild throws, attacks that materialize from positions that shouldn’t create openings. He’s dangerous precisely because orthodox game plans don’t account for his improvisation.
“He is very unpredictable,” he said. “He creates things that only he can create. He jumps for flying armbars, he does crazy throws, so his style is hard to predict. He always creates something new. I think that’s why he’s so dangerous.”
“I think right after I won the title, I started thinking about moving to no gi, because I know there are more opportunities to do super-fights and the money and everything is better in no gi,” he said. “It was my plan: win Worlds and then transition to no gi.”