Marcio Andre is one of the toughest and most talented young black belts on the scene, becoming 2015 European black belt lightweight champion at the tender age of 21.

We would have loved to have included him on our list of ‘best 25 black belts under 25’, but we left him out as he’s been inactive since January this year, having disappeared from the competition circuit.

Originally from one of the toughest hoods in Rio but now living and teaching jiu-jitsu in the United Arab Emirates, Andre is back in action this weekend at the LA leg of the Grand Slam. We checked in with the rising star to find out why he’s been out of action for so long.

FloGrappling: Marcio, we’ve not seen you in action since Europeans. Tell us what happened and why you’ve not been active.

Marcio Andre: So, I spent a lot of time fighting with a torn ligament that was bothering me a lot. Aside from the fact that I couldn’t fight 100%, I couldn’t train 100%. I said that even though the Europeans would be my last event, I trained as I could and I went with courage as with other events. Thanks God I was champion and then I decided to stop to do the operation.



How was the recovery process? What kind of things did you do so you were ready to come back, and who did you work with for this?

The operation was on my front cruciate ligament and I took out 40% of my meniscus. One month after surgery, I was already doing almost everything normally. My recovery was really good, thanks God. After, I did some parallel treatments, like ozone therapy and platelet-rich plasma therapy.

How has the time away from competition affected your jiu-jitsu? You must be crazy to fight!

This time I spent out, I could learn a lot of stuff. I evolved as an athlete and as a man, I think that my jiu-jitsu improved a lot and I am dying to fight. It’s been about seven months since I did the op and since my first day of surgery I couldn’t wait for the time to be back on the mat doing what I was born to do.

The Grand Slam is a pretty big event for your first comp back from injury. Why did you choose that as your comeback?

I’ve always had a good head, athletes or events don’t scare me even a little, I only value my victory. But I chose this event as it was the first one that came up when I said I was ready to fight.

You’ve got tough guys in your category such as Celsinho Vinicius and Roberto Satoshi. How do you analyse your opponents?

They are tough guys that I always liked to watch compete. The jiu-jitsu of both guys is to go forward, and I was really happy when I saw their names in the brackets. I’m really excited I can fight with these guys. My dream was always to fight the best, this is my chance to show what I’m made of.

Marcio Andre fights this weekend in the LA Grand Slam. For more great FloGrappling event coverage consider signing up for the upcoming World No-Gi Championships.