‘Buchecha’ says ONE Championship has all the best heavyweights in the world

As one of the most decorated grapplers to ever step foot into a cage, Marcus ‘Buchecha’ Almeida’s transition into MMA has been flawless thus far.

The submission specialist racked up four consecutive first-round finishes over Anderson Silva, Kang Ji Won, Simon Carson, and Kirill Grishenko within a period of 12 months, to go 4-0 in his short yet successful career in the all-encompassing sport.

Those impressive performances meant that Almeida’s name was going to be thrown into the world title conversations. And although he is eager to contest for the ONE heavyweight world title, the Brazilian wants to take one step at a time to prep himself for the possibility of facing Arjan Bhullar or Anatoly Malykhin.

With divisional king Arjan Bhullar inactive for over two years, undefeated Russian Anatoly Malykhin has produced a similar streak to Almeida, a run that has seen him become the interim heavyweight champion and the light heavyweight champion, too.

Between the two of them, Malykhin and Almeida have cleaved a path right through the heavyweight division, awaiting Bhullar’s return after a long period of inactivity.

As he waits for the division to have the world championships unified, Almeida is working to improve his overall game.

In an interview with the South China Morning Post, ‘Buchecha’ revealed that he believes the heavyweight division in ONE Championship is the best in the world:

“If you’re a heavyweight fighting in ONE Championship, you’re a warrior. All the best heavyweights are fighting there.”

Watch the full interview below:

Almeida will be closely watching when Arjan Bhullar and Anatoly Malykhin finally clash as he awaits his own world championship contest inside the Circle.