[6] Fandiño first donned the suit of lights in Laudio, Álava on 16 August 1999,[6] in an appearance at which he alternated with José Manuel Sánchez, fighting young bulls supplied by the Miguel Zaballos ranch.

On the afternoon of 28 September he performed at Moralzarzal, where after cutting an ear from each of his young bulls from the La Guadamilla ranch, he was proclaimed the champion of the Madrid novillero cycle.

[7] When Fandiño was a novillero (novice bullfighter who fights yearling bulls), while in the Province of Guadalajara,[8] he crossed paths with Néstor García, the man who would be his agent-manager – his apoderado – for the rest of his life.

They arrived in Madrid together for 12 September 2004,[3] Fandiño's big day, when he presented himself at Las Ventas, alternating with Manuel Barea "El Arqueño" and Héctor José, who was from Colombia.

Even though he was badly gored by a bull at the Malagueta bullring in Málaga on 20 August, he ended the season at the top of the escalafón taurino (bullfighters' rankings).

[7] Fandiño's rise continued in 2012, when after a tour through Latin America with daily triumphs, his Spanish campaign opened with the bullfighter being borne out through the Great Gate at the Feria taurina de San José (Saint Joseph's Bullfighting Fair, also called the Feria de Fallas) at the Valencia bullring, and triumphal afternoons also came his way in Seville and Madrid, where he was awarded ears from each bull.

In only a month, he fought two corridas as the lone bullfighter, one in Bilbao and the other in Valencia, cut two ears in Bilbao's Corridas Generales, and repeated his success in Madrid with a great appearance at the Autumn Fair, which, together with his triumphs in the southwest of France, were enough to make him bullfighter of the year after he was borne shoulder-high out of the Dax, Bayonne, and Joseph-Fourniol (Vic-Fezensac) bullrings.

[7][6][3] Now ensconced among the élite, Fandiño opened the 2013 bullfighting season with New World successes in Lima (Peru), Cali, Medellín, Duitama (Colombia), Mérida, and San Cristóbal (Venezuela), and with a triumphant ear-cutting at each of Castellón de la Plana and Valencia.

Fandiño returned to the bullrings only after a month of convalescence, and almost at once became the champion of the well-known Festival of San Fermín, as well as reaping five ears from bulls, after triumphant appearances, at Mont-de-Marsan.

One of the season's other highlights was Fandiño's fight in Bilbao with a fierce bull from the Jandilla ranch, and there were further outstanding successes at Arles, Santander, Cáceres, Salamanca, Burgos, Palencia, Pontevedra, Cuenca, Almería, Ciudad Real, and Zaragoza.

[7][6][8] After an intense campaign in the New World, the 2014 bullfighting season began for Fandiño in Valencia, once again during the Feria taurina de San José, where he scored a great triumph, and after appearing on two April afternoons at the Seville Fair.

On 13 May, the Great Gate at Las Ventas was swung open for him after he had reaped two ears at a corrida with bulls from the Parladé ranch during the Feria de San Isidro.

This year, 2014, was a triumphal campaign for the bullfighter from Orduña, who ended the season with more than 60 bullfighting engagements and outstanding triumphs at Pamplona, where he cut four ears and was hailed as champion for the second consecutive year, Soria, Mont-de-Marsan, Bayonne, Palencia, Ciudad Real, Guadalajara, A Coruña, Talavera de la Reina, Valladolid, Linares, and Alicante among others.

[9][7] Fandiño began his 2015 bullfighting campaign with a great challenge, locking himself in with six bulls from legendary ranches at the Las Ventas bullring in Madrid.

[7][10] Fandiño's 2016 season was going the same way until in Bilbao, during the city's Aste Nagusia ("Great Week" in Basque) festival, he "immortalized" Lagunero, a bull from the Jandilla ranch, in a memorable faena.

According to some British reports, Fandiño had tripped on his cape (it was not clear whether a capote de brega or a muleta was meant), and perhaps even fallen, leaving him vulnerable to the goring.

[11][12] After being attended at the bullring's own infirmary, when the injury's seriousness became quite obvious, Fandiño was transferred to the Hôpital Layné in Mont-de-Marsan, where he died of another cardiac arrest.

Fandiño had chosen this way to bid farewell to his parents, his sister, his apoderado (who was the one to make this story public in an interview), and of course his wife and young daughter,[9] who was not quite two when her father died.

Homages in Fandiño's memory were rounded out with a bullfighting festival whose participants included Enrique Ponce, Curro Díaz, El Fandi, Iván Abásolo, the novillero José Rojo, and the rejoneador Diego Ventura.

[17] Unveiled on 29 September 2019 – which would have been Fandiño's 39th birthday – at the entrance to the Arènes Maurice-Lauche bullring in Aire-sur-l'Adour, the scene of the bullfighter's death, was yet another monument in his memory.