Eduardo Novaes

Status: Former ONE Athlete

Three-time State BJJ Champion Eduardo Novaes was born in Santos, on the coast of Sao Paulo in Brazil. When he was 15 years old, he watched Royce Gracie in the early days of mixed martial arts, and it lit a fire in him to begin training in Brazilian jiu-jitsu right away.

Luckily, his town was home to a Carlson Gracie black belt named Elcio Figueiredo, now a coral belt master. Novaes trained at Figueiredo’s academy Integracao Jiu-jitsu for 15 years, earning his black belt in December of 2004. During that time, he successfully competed in numerous state and national-level BJJ tournaments, making a name for himself in the local scene.

After a chance encounter with some friends at Evolve, he moved to Singapore to be a BJJ coach at the academy. After being inspired by the stellar coaching staff there, he decided to try his hand at mixed martial arts himself, expanding his skill set under the numerous Muay Thai world champions around him. He was soon signed by ONE Championship on the back of his stellar grappling credentials, and made his promotional debut in 2017.