Marcus ‘Buchecha’ Almeida “went crazy” when older sister beat him in BJJ as a child

ONE heavyweight marvel and 17-time Brazilian jiu-jitsu world champion Marcus 'Buchecha' Almeida had quite the start in his jiu-jitsu journey.

Initially just accompanying his sister to classes at the behest of their father, Almeida eventually started attending the classes himself. The rest, as they say, was history.

Speaking to ONE Championship, Almeida recounted how his initial experience on the mats was, particularly with his sister, who was more advanced than him at the time.

When asked if it bothered him that his sister used to beat him up on the mats before, Almeida said:

"In a way, I didn't want to be beaten by my sister. She was a woman and she was my sister, so I went crazy. I was a child, I didn't want to be beaten by her at all. It bothered me even more that she was my sister and beat me. But we trained for a short time together. She ended up getting a boyfriend who didn't really like the idea of her training jiu-jitsu, so she ended up stopping training. So, I didn't have the opportunity to feel my evolution in relation to her at that time. She stopped too early, stopped at white belt."

It would have been interesting to see 'Buchecha' take on the sport alongside his sister if she continued training with him. We'd imagine that the two would have become the first brother-sister BJJ world champions.

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'Buchecha' talks about how he used to train with his father and sister

It wasn't just his sister who trained alongside 'Buchecha' as a child. Their father, Clayton, also got into the sport because of his children.

Clayton loved the sport so much that he eventually became a black belt like his son, even winning a gold medal in the IBJJF masters world championship:

When asked how he felt about training alongside his family, 'Buchecha' said:

"It was cool for a while. We trained, my sister, my father, and I. We tried to take my mother, but she didn't really like the idea of training. But it was cool, the family together there practicing a sport. My father liked it a lot because he knew where we were, he knew that we weren't doing anything stupid, anything wrong. So, this little time we trained together was wonderful!"

It's no wonder Almeida became the legend that he is now.

He was motivated by the best people in his corner, his family. Nothing makes someone strive to be the best they can be more than the encouragement of those they love the most.