‘It Lit A Fire’ – What Inspired American Rising Star Joshua Perreira To Chase MMA Greatness
American MMA phenom Joshua “Flyin Hawaiian” Perreira is poised to make waves in his global debut on Friday, March 7 in U.S. primetime at ONE Fight Night 29: Rodrigues vs. McManamon on Prime Video.
That night, the undefeated rising star will square off with all-action Chinese scrapper “The Prince” Banma Duoji in a flyweight MMA tilt at Bangkok’s famed Lumpinee Stadium.
A gifted athlete with well-rounded skills and a preternatural knack for finding the finish, Perreira has all the makings of America’s next big MMA superstar.
Naturally, fans are dying to know more about the Hawaiian standout. This is his journey to the world’s largest martial arts organization.
Inspired By Kung Fu Movies
The middle child in a hard-working, blue-collar family, Perreira told onefc.com that he enjoyed a typical Hawaiian upbringing that included plenty of outdoor activities, occasional fistfights, and a love for classic Kung Fu movies.
According to Perreira, it was the on-screen exploits of Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, and Jet Li that sparked his initial interest in fighting and martial arts.
He said:
“I think [it was] watching Bruce Lee do a lead leg sidekick on someone, blasting him through a wall or something like that, you know? That was like ‘Oh!’ Seeing someone be able to train and use their body in that way… it excited me.
“I always knew I was going to be a fighter, but I just didn’t know where I’d start. I’d say Kung Fu movies and martial arts movies is how I first got into them.”
How Defeat Ignited His Passion
Despite his natural athletic gifts, Perreira didn’t play many sports throughout his teenage years, but did dip his toes in martial arts by joining a judo team in high school.
Shortly after graduating from high school, he joined a friend in Ohio to help open and run a parkour gym. What was expected to be a brief, one-year stay on the mainland turned into seven years.
Living for the first time on his own, Perreira worked long hours and walked miles daily just to make ends meet:
“I moved out here with maybe $900 in my pocket. Maybe closer to $1,200. I didn’t have a car. I had to walk everywhere. I had to [walk] in the snow, and the rain, and the sun, like all the way to the restaurant where I worked at. There and back was like five miles altogether on foot.”
After spending some time settling into life in Ohio, Perreira met respected MMA veteran Matt Brown – a man he considers to be a close friend and his primary MMA coach to this day.
Still essentially new to martial arts, the Hawaiian took his first amateur fight after just one week of training. While he suffered defeat in that contest, it would ignite his passion for MMA, pushing him to become a complete martial artist and leading him down the path he’s on today.
Perreira looked back on his first-ever MMA fight:
“Taking my first fight and losing, it lit a fire inside of me and gave me real love for the sport. You can’t be just somebody off the streets that knows how to throw a sidekick and a hip toss, you know? You gotta work for it.
“He took me down. He was a fantastic wrestler. He took me down, kept taking me down, and that was the thing that kind of made me go, ‘I just don’t understand this.’ He keeps taking me down and he got a rear-naked choke. He got me in the second round.
“I was like, ‘man, how do you do that?’ So I went to jiu-jitsu. I still had the black eye and everything. I went straight into jiu-jitsu. I just kept going at it. Putting all my money, putting everything into it, being able to train, buying a gi, doing all the classes that I could. Working myself to the bone, just training, training, training.”
That obsessive dedication to his craft has paid off and Perreira hasn’t tasted defeat in amateur or professional fights since then.
Now 5-0 as a pro and on the cusp of his hotly anticipated global debut, Perreira remains just as passionate about improving his fighting abilities as he was when he first started:
“I love the honor and no matter how good you get, you can get better. Those people that say I don’t need to train or I don’t need to do this are the ones that are always destined to fail because they’re not going out of the way to get better. I guess I’m a bit of a perfectionist and I always want to work hard, so I just keep doing it. I just keep working hard and I earn everything along the way.”
Molded By His Family
Joshua Perreira’s unstoppable work ethic didn’t just come about by chance – he has an example to follow.
“Flyin Hawaiian” finds constant inspiration in his father, who worked incredibly hard to provide for his family while still being a present and supportive parent:
“My dad’s been a huge inspiration for me. There’s three kids and he worked long hours and he still made time for all of us. He still made all that time personalized for all of us too.”
Indeed, the Perreira work ethic runs in the family. Just like he puts in countless hours in the gym in pursuit of his dreams, Perreira said that his siblings are also the image of hard work.
He added:
“My brother and my sister, they work so hard for everything that they’ve earned. They never ask for handouts either. I always try and go out and earn everything I do, and then they’ve always inspired me to always have that hard work mentality.”
‘I’m Fighting In Front Of The World’
Perreira understands the magnitude of the opportunity before him as he makes his ONE Championship debut.
Competing on the biggest stage for martial arts, live in U.S. primetime with millions of people watching around the globe, is something he’s never experienced before, and Perreira can’t wait to put on a show:
“It’s not just another regional show. I’m not just another regional undefeated fighter. I’m fighting in front of the world, for the world to see.”
While some fighters might think they’ve finally made it once they get the call to compete on the global stage, Perreira feels like he’s only just beginning – and he’s not about to let this life-changing opportunity slip through his grasp.
With that in mind, he’s only turned up the training intensity ahead of ONE Fight Night 29:
“I will not waste this opportunity. Not at all. I’ve already done three sessions today and I got at least one more today to do, and that’s been it ever since I got the hint that I may have the opportunity to fight.
“And, even before that, I’m a student of martial arts first, and I want to perfect all of my techniques. But if I can perform and show perfect technique, for the world to see, especially for ONE, I’m not going to waste this opportunity.”
