BJJ legend ‘Buchecha’ looks back on an incredible year as a mixed martial arts fighter

17-time Brazilian jiu-jitsu world champion Marcus ‘Buchecha’ Almeida is proud of the progress he has made in 2022.

The undefeated Brazilian extended his streak to four with back-to-back victories within the calendar year against Simon Carson and Kirill Grishenko. With four total fights in an 11-month period between September 2021 and August 2022, ‘Buchecha’ established himself as one of the brightest MMA prospects in the heavyweight division worldwide.

“2022 was really a very good year,” Almeida said in an interview with ONE Championship. “I just have to be grateful. I earned two very important victories for my career. In 2021, I also had two fights, so in a period of 11 months, I had four fights. It was a very fast-moving period, having one camp after another.”

His most impressive victory came against former ONE heavyweight interim title challenger Kirill Grishenko at ONE on Prime Video 1. Stepping into the circle for the biggest test of his career, ‘Buchecha’ rose to the occasion, scoring a heel-hook submission in just 64 seconds. It was the fourth straight first-round finish for Almeida, who is already staring down the barrel of world title contention.

Already working towards a 2023 return, ‘Buchecha’ is putting the focus on his striking in preparation for a tough class of opponents going forward.

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‘Buchecha’ trained alongside ONE middleweight champion Reinier de Ridder

As Marcus Almeida prepares for the next level of competition in his pro MMA career, he embraced the opportunity to train alongside one of the promotion’s most decorated stars, Reinier de Ridder.

‘Buchecha’ revealed in an interview with ONE Championship that he had the chance to work with ‘The Dutch Knight’ in an effort to help improve each other’s striking game and further hone their grappling skills:

“[We did] A lot of rounds. It was a very good session, a grueling session. And it’s just cool, man. It was cool to train with a guy who I’ve looked up to for a while and to measure myself with his skillset.”

Reinier de Ridder would go on to lose one of his two ONE world titles and his undefeated record in a first-round knockout loss against Russian juggernaut Anatoly Malykhin.

Marcus Almeida stated:

“I want to use my jiu-jitsu as he used his in his fights in his career. So that was really inspiring for me and a great opportunity. It was amazing the way that he trains, the way that he felt the game. It was great for me, not just to train but to learn a lot with him.”