‘It lit a fire’ — what inspired American rising star Joshua Perreira to chase MMA greatness
Published: 03 Mar. 2025, 14:52
Updated: 03 Mar. 2025, 16:53
![Joshua “Flyin Hawaiian” Perreira [ONE CHAMPIONSHIP]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2025/03/03/9b525310-1b35-4826-9c1b-c203b402b016.jpg)
Joshua “Flyin Hawaiian” Perreira [ONE CHAMPIONSHIP]
American MMA phenom Joshua “Flyin Hawaiian” Perreira is poised to make waves in his global debut on 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.
“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?" he said. "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," he said. " 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," he said. "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.
BY BEN COATE [[email protected]]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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