Andrew Pi

On 2015, Vice Media did a documentary on the growth of MMA in China which featured Pi as well as former UFC fighter, Andy Wang.

To date, AOW has held 15 events in mainland China. Its largest event was Art of War 12 - Invincible, held at the National Olympic Sports Center Auditorium in Beijing on May 23, 2009 to an audience of around 6,000 fans. The event attracted many international guests, including former UFC Heavyweight Champion Tim Sylvia, renowned ring announcer Michael Buffer, and experienced referee "Big" John McCarthy.

On November 6, 2005, AOW conducted its first event at the Beijing Sport University. The event was so packed there were people lined up outside every window trying to get a look inside. This made it the first regulated professional MMA event held in China.

In 2003, after his gym established its reputation, Pi was invited to attend what would be one of the earliest domestic MMA competitions in China which was also televised. The competition was held at an Akkido dojo. In the competition he was paired up against Xu Xiaodong, a Sanda fighter. During the fight, Xu broke Pi's forearm early with a kick. However Pi managed to eventually get Xu to the ground where he won via Armbar submission.

In 1999, Pi met a Brazilian-Arab in a business trip where they became good friends. He then took some Chinese judo practitioners to compete at the ADCC Submission Fighting World Championships. Although they were not successful, it was Pi's first hand experience of BJJ at international competitive level.

In 1997, Pi received his Blue belt in BJJ under Royce Gracie and in the same year moved to Beijing with his parents. As no one in China knew what BJJ was, Pi saw an opportunity and in 1998 opened the first BJJ academy in Beijing where he would introduce the art to students.

He attended the University of California, Riverside graduating in 1995 with a degree in Psychology.

In 1994, during his time in college, he saw a video of an Ultimate Fighting Championship event. He noticed how Royce Gracie would win all the fights by taking down people bigger than him and forcing them to give up without hurting them. This would inspire him to attend the Gracie University of Jiu-Jitsu in Torrance where he learnt BJJ.

Andrew Pi (nicknamed Andy; Chinese: 畢思安; born 1973) is a Chinese Brazilian jiu-jitsu (BJJ) practitioner and businessman. He is best known as a founder of Art of War Fighting Championship (AOW), the first professional mixed martial arts (MMA) promotion in China. In addition he opened the first BJJ academy in Beijing in 1998. In 2003, he defeated Xu Xiaodong via submission in one of the earliest televised MMA bouts in China which helped popularize BJJ in the country.