“We went straight to party” - Adriano Moraes recalls ‘crazy’ scenes in his hometown after clinching ONE gold back in 2014
Adriano Moraes has won a lot of world title fights in his career, but nothing beats the feeling of the first one.
As an eight-time ONE world champion, 'Mikinho' is not just one of the best flyweights in ONE Championship history—he's one of the greatest fighters of all time.
On Friday, Nov. 8, he'll try to prove it once again when he makes his long-awaited return to the legendary Lumpinee Stadium in Bangkok for a high-stakes scrap with Danny Kingad.
Moraes currently sits as the top-ranked contender in the flyweight division and could very well earn another shot at 26 pounds of gold with a win over 'The King' inside the Mecca of Muay Thai.
Looking back on his first-ever ONE world title victory during an appearance on Party Starter Radio, Moraes remembers returning to his home country and going straight from the plane to the party.
"It was nice, it was crazy," Moraes recalled. "My friends were waiting at the airport, everybody, with some of them with a bottle of vodka in their hands. In Brazil, in my city, the electronic music community was huge. Everybody knows the electronic music scene since I was a teenager. So when I arrived, we went straight to party."
The iconic trilogy between Adriano Moraes and Geje Eustaquio
Adriano Moraes' first ONE world title victory came at ONE: Rise of the Kingdom on Sept. 12, 2014. On that night, 'Mikinho' defeated former two-time titleholder Geje Eustaquio via a second-round submission.
Moraes and Eustaquio would go on to fight three times over the next four years, marking the first-ever trilogy in ONE Championship history.
Eustaquio reclaimed the flyweight title in their second meeting via a closely contested split decision but handed the title right back to 'Mikinho seven months later at ONE: Hero's Ascent.
Next month, Moraes will take a step toward becoming a nine-time ONE flyweight MMA world champion when he meets Kingad on martial arts' biggest global stage.
Fans in the United States and Canada can watch ONE 169 live on Amazon Prime Video on Friday, Nov. 8 in U.S. primetime.