Bibiano Fernandes on longevity: one meal a day and the three pillars of mind, technique and body
At 46, the fighter from Manaus keeps winning. In three conversations with VF Comunica during 2026, he explained how he eats, where his strength comes from and what he tells people who compete under pressure
Bibiano Fernandes was a black belt Jiu-Jitsu world champion, had a long MMA career and, at 46, still puts on the gi to compete. In September, he won gold at the World Master, in Las Vegas. Throughout 2026, VF Comunica spoke with him three times, and the answers together form a picture of how the fighter from Manaus thinks about his own longevity.
One meal a day
One of the conversations was at the Worlds, at the Pyramid in Long Beach, and started with a joke from Vitor Freitas about how young he looks. Bibiano answered by saying what he eats, or what he stopped eating.
“Right now I’m on a diet, I don’t eat a lot of things. I eat one lunch, and then I only eat again tomorrow,” he said. That morning, according to him, he had only had black coffee. The list of cuts includes sugar, meat and dairy. “I don’t eat sugar. It’s nature,” he said.
The routine is his own and wasn’t presented as a recommendation. Bibiano himself rejected the idea that his diet is the source of his strength. “It’s not the secret to strength, because it gets in the way of the mind too,” he said.
“When you make the decision to get up, that’s when the strength comes”
To explain where strength comes from, he described a scene from training. “Strength comes when you’re tired. Someone has to say, ‘Brother, get up.’ ‘No, I can’t.’ ‘You can.’ When you make the decision to get up, that’s when the strength comes,” he said.
Bibiano shares the credit. “The talent comes from us, but God is the one who gives strength. And there are the people who will help you, who will be by your side supporting you,” he said.
Where he comes from also counts. He credits Manaus, the heat and the lack of easy paths for the way he was shaped. “In Canada, in several countries, people have things easy. In Manaus, a guy has to fight to go after what he wants,” he said. For him, winning goes through a “diamond process,” being polished by hardship.
Advice for competing under pressure
At the same Worlds, a day earlier, Bibiano was in the arena as a coach, following his students, and VF Comunica asked for advice for anyone entering a tournament of that size. The answer was one word. “Pressure. You have to know how to absorb the pressure,” he said.
Then he broke the idea into three parts. “Are you physically prepared, technically prepared and, most important, mentally prepared? For me, the mind, the technique and the body all have to matter at the highest level,” he said.
“The secret is love”
The most recent conversation happened in September, minutes after his title at the World Master. Asked once more about the secret to his vitality, Bibiano gave the shortest answer of the three. “Train every day. The secret is love, feeling love for what you do,” he said. “Coming here to take part, to compete, is good for our soul, for our mind.”
Before stepping on the mat that day, he had described his own state of mind with the calm of someone who has been competing for decades. “Now it’s just staying calm, not thinking too much, staying focused,” he said.
Full video on YouTube
The conversation about diet and strength is in the vlog from day three of the 2026 Worlds, on the VF Comunica YouTube channel (in Portuguese).
What is the secret to competing well after 40? Leave your opinion in the comments.
