‘Buchecha’ not thinking of challenging Anatoly Malykhin at the moment: “I will fight for the belt when the time is right”

ONE heavyweight mixed martial arts fighter Marcus ‘Buchecha’ Almeida seeks to become a world champion but asserts he is not in a hurry in achieving it.

Among the fighters on a roll in the heavyweight class, the 32-year-old Brazilian jiu-jitsu legend is taking his MMA journey one step at a time and hopes to vie for the championship when the time is right.

The ONE heavyweight division is currently ruled by Russian Anatoly Malykhin, who recently unified the heavyweight belts after defeating former champion Arjan Bhullar by technical knockout in their title showdown in June. He, too, is the concurrent light heavyweight king.

In an interview with ONE Championship, ‘Buchecha’ said he has no plans of challenging Malykhin for the world title at the moment and instead is just focusing on his scheduled fight in Bangkok next week.

The BJJ legend said:

“I will fight for the belt when the time is right. But I don’t go into any fight thinking about the next one. My focus is totally on ‘Reug Reug.’”

The American Top Team standout is to clash with Oumar ‘Reug Reug’ Kane of Senegal at ONE Fight Night 13 on Prime Video on August 4.

It is part of a nine-fight offering happening at the Lumpinee Boxing Stadium and is available live and for free to Prime Video subscribers in North America.

‘Buchecha’ has won all of his four fights to date under ONE Championship, which all came by way of finishes inside the opening round. But while he has achieved much success in MMA, 'Buchecha' admits that he is still far from the level where he wants to be at in the sport and vows to continue putting in the work to steadily improve.

Oumar Kane, meanwhile, will try to extend his two-fight winning run at ONE Fight Night 13. The last victory for ‘Reug Reug’ came back in December, where he topped Jasur Mirzamukhamedov by unanimous decision.