Injured Fabricio Andrade bummed to have missed out on historic ONE 166: Qatar: "A place I would have wanted to be in"
ONE bantamweight MMA world champion Fabricio Andrade is still kicking himself for missing out on an opportunity to fight in the growing combat sports destination in the Middle East.
The world's largest martial arts organization recently held its first event in Qatar, ONE 166, at Lusail Sports Arena last March 1.
Unfortunately for 'Wonder Boy', the dreaded injury bug prevented him from being part of this historic spectacle.
In an exclusive interview with Sportskeeda MMA, Fabricio Andrade revealed that he wants to fight all over the world. And, as it turns out, Qatar is among those at the top of his bucket list:
"So it would be amazing for me to fight there. I was very disappointed that I wasn't able to recover in time for that card because Qatar is definitely a place I would have wanted to be in. And, for sure, in the future, I want to fight in Qatar."
After falling short against Jonathan Haggerty in his kickboxing venture at ONE Fight Night 16 last year, Fabricio Andrade has opted to take a break to deal with some nagging injuries.
This includes a hernia on his neck, which caused him a great deal of pain in his arm and shoulder while he was preparing for 'The General'.
Fabricio Andrade admits he should have pulled out against Jonathan Haggerty
Despite feeling compromised due to injury, Fabricio Andrade still went through his champion vs. champion showdown against Haggerty.
After all, the allure of becoming a two-sport ONE world champion was too hard to pass up.
Plus, he thought his warrior spirit would allow him to power through the pain and claim the bantamweight kickboxing world title as a reward.
'Wonder Boy' said in a previous interview with the South China Morning Post:
“I didn't want to stay out of fighting, but it'd have been a smart decision to stay away because the fight was postponed, and you know when the start of the camp was finished, I was strong, but as the camp went through, that's when I started to feel like worse and worse. I start to feel a lot of pain.”