BY KARL R. De MESA
Published 22 September 2022
From street fights and skateboarding in Brasilia, local jiu-jitsu tournaments, to beating the GOAT Demetrious Johnson, the former One Championship flyweight kingpin reveals in this exclusive interview how “Peace Through Sports” has been his guiding light in life and dominating in MMA.
For years afterwards, fans of Asian MMA and Adriano “Mikinho” Moraes will remember the night of April 7, 2021. It was the debut airing in the US of ONE Championship, ONE on TNT 1, marked by the headline event where the reigning young flyweight champ Mikinho defeated DJ, Demetrious Johnson.
Almost nobody believed it could happen. DJ “Mighty Mouse” was already considered one of the GOATS of mixed martial arts, a successful run in the UFC bookended by an unprecedented “swap” of talents between the two organizations—ONE Championship’s former welterweight champ Ben Askren was “traded” for the former flyweight UFC champ, DJ. On that night, Mikinho’s third title reign as flyweight kingpin was elevated to stratospheric heights by his defeat of Mighty Mouse.
Held at the Singapore Indoor Stadium in Kallang, the company's debut live telecast on US television was a crucial first litmus test. Could the Asian promotion and its talents appeal to American combat sports tastes? Bettors in North America, familiar with DJ and his long string of wins as the dominant flyweight in the UFC, put money on an easy win over the underdog, relatively unknown and certainly not given credence against such a force of nature as Mighty Mouse.
Mikinho was the huge underdog. It didn’t matter.
Round 1 was picture perfect Mighty Mouse, blitzing and perfect in angles and his pocket entries. But by Round 2 the surprise KO at 2:24 of round 2 was due to perfectly timed defense by Mikinho, who caught Johnson with an uppercut as he was diving for a takedown. The subsequent scramble and the difference in rules (ONE C’s Global Rule Set allows knees to the head of a “grounded” opponent) was the only adjustment that Mikinho needed to capitalize on a knee to DJ’s head that stunned and folded the former UFC champ. Following it were a blitz of punches until the referee saw fit to step in and declare a KO.
Prior to this defeat, Mighty Mouse only had three losses. And he had never been knocked out before. Mikinho, the former orphan adopted at age 3, curbside skateboarder, and street fighting miscreant had done the impossible: he had defeated one of the sport’s GOATS by punching his lights out.
“I am still taking the time to understand what this win was for me. I am still blown away by it,” said Moraes in an exclusive interview with the DD website regarding his win over Johnson.
“Nobody in the world who didn’t know him expected him to win nor what happened in that fight,” said Diesel Diva founder Beverly Roach. “It was over pretty darn quick and that no one ever expected. I have a lot of respect for Adriano as a fighter, as a person. He’s like a little brother to me. I love him to pieces.”
Roach also recalled how the close relationship between the flyweight champ and the Peace Through Sports movement espoused by the Diesel Diva developed from a shared bond over the sport.
“From the first time I watched Adriano fight I knew he was going to be the champion,” recalled Roach. “He was young, but smooth and confident. I always knew that he, from a fight perspective, had great championship potential.”
The Diesel Diva sponsored and provided some financial support to Moraes after he jumped from being a Shooto Brazil champ to his early years in ONE Championship in 2013. Roach had gone to almost every ONE show from the first event until she left for Afghanistan in 2013.
“I didn’t miss any of the shows. I then went to UFC 184 and met with a friend of mine who was with Paradigm Sports and he in turn introduced me to Alex Davis who was Adriano’s manager,” recalled Roach. “We hit it off. We then talked about how we could collaborate and one of the points was Adriano. Until they are champ, you see, the fighters aren’t really making a lot of money. So I helped and did some sponsorships for him. I also learned about his story about how he was an orphan and that his adoptive mom put him into martial arts and how he felt that it all kept him out of trouble.”
Roach continued: “By the time he went to American Top Team and was champ in ONE, his success story was already very inspiring to me. Now, I no longer need to sponsor Adriano but he is still a big supporter of Peace Through Sports. He intuitively understands what we do in DD, that it’s for those athletes who are up and coming, those who need it the most.”
Mikinho now has a record of 19-3 in pro MMA, informed by a formidable 4KOs, 9 submissions, and 6 decisions. He has captured the flyweight belt three times with his stay in ONE and he believes he has yet to peak in his career in MMA.
In this exclusive interview, Mikinho takes us through his other passions and his philosophy of creating art on a beautiful, violent canvas.
DD: You were very much into skateboard competitions as a teenager. Do you still follow the events in that sport and are you still passionate about it?
ADRIANO MORAES: Yes, of course I am. I follow the talk around skateboarding. It’s great now how it is the first appearance of skateboarding in the Olympics. I remember when I used to skateboard with my friends in Brasilia. There was that dream that time you know, maybe one day skateboarding can go to Olympics? The people then will look at skateboarding better and man, that just happened! Everybody loves skateboarders now and that is really cool. I used to compete a lot in Brasilia in skateboarding. When I was like 13 years old.
DD: We hear you were a very good thrasher, especially with tricks?
AM: I can do a lot of tricks. Flip kick flip, 360 flip, and ollie front, ollie back. Straight to the rails. The time I used to skate was at that time everybody in the family and the population they looked on it with negativity. And that's why I stopped to skate and think, man its probably better for me to do another thing. I didn't think this skateboarding, I don’t think I’m going to have a good future. I can’t provide for my family with skateboarding. But I had such talent in skateboarding. I even won some competitions in Brasilia.
DD: Have the skateboarding competitions changed much form your teen years, how do you think you might fare today against the young guns of the sport?
AM: The skateboarding championships today they have evolved so much. I remember when we had 60 seconds to do tricks and execute at the skate park. With rails, ramps, and stuff. Just 60 seconds and in the finish they have the judgment for your score. You know, my time was like that. Today you do like 60 seconds and then you have the best tricks and then they plus all the scores and do your last score. Whoever give more score is going to win. Now skateboarding is hard because it’s more competitive. You know, because you can have the best tricks but you also need to know how to score points.
DD; And now skateboarding is in the Olympics.
AM: The Brazilian guy who went to Tokyo, Felipe Gustavo, we used to skateboard together in Brasilia! It was really nice to see him there you know, because I saw a lot of dreamers that time. We dreamed it together and I saw that guy now, well his dream came true. Felipe Gustavo today is one of the best skateboarders in the world. We came from the same city. I remember I saw him with his father at the skate park and I know he's a hard worker. His dream just came true and I'm so proud of him.
DD: You met Beverly Roach when you transferred from Shooto Brazil to ONE Championship.
AM: I met Bev through Alex Davis, who used to be my manager. When I moved to Florida and I did my first and my second camp at American Top Team she was helping me. In my fight against Eugene Toquero Alex introduced me to Bev and she sponsored me, to help me in that fight against Toquero. We closed a good partnership and she helped me a lot with money, equipment and stuff. I had opportunity to do a really good fight camp with her help. We keep it friendly. Beverly was one of the only persons from the international community, I can say, she really helped me in those early times.
DD: As you know, Bev tries to spread the word about Peace Through Sports and your story as well as your success are testament to that ethic.
AM: Bev, she is a warrior. She’s fiery, too, because she's a fighter. She likes to learn and she likes to press forward. She likes sharing her knowledge and she likes to be an example to the world. She always shows me that she is a friend for life. It's her wisdom, exactly. Bev and like my mom, both of them always have some wisdom to give. We support each other today and it’s just amazing.
DD: It’s also something you’ve tried to do in your own social charity projects.
AM: Yeah, if I see some fighters over here who needs some support, some help? I will help them or I will talk with her. like the way she has helped the community and when she passes on the message of peace through sport, I love that!
DD: Everybody knows your route to MMA came through judo and Brazilian jiu-jitsu. Take us back to those early days, what motivated you to persevere?
AM: I remember that time I had a colleague from my BJJ class. She was a girl. Man, she was so beautiful! I always wanted to go to BJJ just because of her. She was a purple belt that time and I was just a white belt. I was a skinny, skinny white belt. She used to smash me a lot and I love that, you know, I was always being beaten. She competed a lot. I said one day I'm going to try to compete.
DD: And so you wanted to emulate your BJJ crush and compete too!
AM: I want to try! Because I always competed all my life. First in judo then in skateboarding. I also competed in basketball and soccer. So in jiu-jitsu I thought, well it's not going to be different! So after my first, second, third competition I said, man I love this! I am getting older too, my troubles in the streets can stay away, stay in the past. That’s when I left the streets behind. It was all because of jiu-jitsu.
DD: Take us further back to when you fell in love with the art actually, what was it that you liked about it?
AM: My mom put me in judo when I was 17 years old, because I was a really extroverted kid. When I was teenager and I started to have a lot of friends and they used to want me to go like be a gang member in my city. So I used to fight in streets and gangs against other guys.
Eventually, one of my old friends introduced me to BJJ, just to defend myself better. That time in Brazil it was really difficult to walk around if you were a gang member or tried to walk with guys who are also gang members. My older brother he used to be a gang member. He was someone really, really recognized in my area. Oh, and I was his young brother? So in the in the same way his troubles eventually came to me naturally.
DD: But you got better at it and eventually spent more time in the gym than on the streets?
AM: I wanted to spend more time inside the gym training than down in the streets doing bad things. Rather than entering troubles. I was trying to be someone respectful instead of trying to be respected in the streets. You know, sometimes you try to be someone you cannot hold, that person you want to be. I said man, I prefer to staying inside the gym, trying new techniques, enjoying Jiu Jitsu, and being straight. I remember I was talking with my mother at home and I asked her: “Mom, I love jiu-jitsu. Can you help me to go for a championship competition in Rio?” It was the BJJ nationals. She said: “Oh, we don't have a lot of money but I can help you with one bus ticket to travel to Rio De Janeiro. Then you can try to come back, you try with your friends.”
DD: How did that turn out?
AM: I got my sponsor. A friend, he used to sell acai with banana. Everybody loves acai. My friend had a store and he sponsored me to go to the nationals and back home. I went to the nationals and I won. When I came back I was really happy. My mom she said, “Oh Adriano, you are a good at this huh?”
DD: Winning all those BJJ tournaments, you eventually wanted to transition to MMA?
AM: My master for BJJ and then to MMA was [UFC veteran] Rani Yahya. I used to watch him fighting in Japan, fighting in WEC. So I said, man, I'm going to try this mixed martial arts because I knew it could give me more money. At that time, I didn’t think jujitsu was going to take me to the place that I wanted to be. But because I used to fight in the streets I thought this MMA sport? This was made for me! It’s like fighting in the streets but they give you money!
DD: It’s absolutely much better than fighting in the streets for free.
AM: Yes, that's it. Because I love to fight! I loved to fight since I was a troubled kid in school. Always in trouble in my area and my neighborhood. I put 100% focus on my fight life. But nobody believed in me that at first, because I was very skinny and scrawny. Everybody beat me in training. I was training with Rani Yahya and Francisco Trinaldo, such powerful fighters. I would get smashed every training.
DD: Eventually, you made your debut in 2011. What was that like?
AM: They said, Adriano, you're going to do your debut now. So I made my debut at 20 years old. This was in Minais Gerais. I traveled to the venue with some friends, and submitted the guy in the first round. Then we celebrated, celebrated a lot! When I came back home, I was thinking to myself: I think I can really do this, so that’s when I started with journey in MMA.
DD: Now you just beat one of the GOATS of MMA. Have you reflected on what knocking out Demetrious Johnson means for your career and your legacy as a future GOAT?
AM: The only thing that I think today is: I will also be one of the GOATs because I'm training hard. It will be because I trained hard, I was disciplined, I was humble with my teammates. I believed in the faith of my brothers, my masters, and my family.
DD: For you, what is your interpretation of the Peace Through Sports philosophy?
AM: It’s in the small things. Like when you just finish the fight you go there and you hug your opponent. To go forward with it, it's a much bigger philosophy. Be a good human being to the society. Be a good teammate inside the gym. I think everything I do today is about “Peace Through Sports.” It is the peace I want to bring to my life. It is the peace I want to leave for me and for my friends. The peace I wish for you. Everything that is true in my life is through sports. Through jiu-jitsu. Through boxing. Through the mixed martial arts.
DD: Beyond being a fighter, how do you see yourself?
AM: I look at myself and I see an artist. I'm an artist because I like creating art through martial arts. Through the mixing of martial arts I am alive today. Today, I can help a lot of kids. Today, I can help a lot of people with my talent, with my example, with how I bring the peace to others.
DD: There are many aspiring young fighters out there who look up to you now, champ. Might you have a message for them about their own journey through martial arts?
AM: Just be disciplined. Be brave. Be true. You need to be true for yourself because adversity will be in your way the only way to keep going forward is to never step back. Go forward with love and dedication. Everything in your life that you want will happen in due time.
END
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