“Love the process” – Marcus ‘Buchecha’ Almeida working on his striking in preparation for 2023 run

The all-time Brazilian jiu-jitsu great, Marcus ‘Buchecha’ Almeida, is sharpening his skills in MMA. The ONE Championship heavyweight recently shared a photo of himself in boxing mitts.

On Instagram, the Brazilian-born Almeida shared:

"Enjoy the difficult, love the process!"

Thus far, in his MMA run, ‘Buchecha’ has looked unstoppable. After winning numerous world championships in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, the heavyweight fighter felt accomplished enough to switch his focus to MMA.

Almeida made his professional debut in MMA in 2021 with ONE Championship. Since then, he has put together four consecutive victories- all via stoppage in the first round. Three of these finishes have come via submission holds.

To add, each victory continues to come at a quicker time. In his first win, he needed 2:55, next was 2:27, then 2:24, and most recently he only needed 1:04 to finish his foe.

No one has been able to stop or even challenge the deep skillset of ‘Buchecha’ thus far. He will be looking to make a big impact in the heavyweight division in 2023.

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Marcus ‘Buchecha’ Almeida training with Reinier de Ridder

Marcus ‘Buchecha’ Almeida got a chance to train with the undefeated two-division ONE world champion Reinier de Ridder earlier this year.

Reinier de Ridder's next fight will be at ONE on Prime Video 5 on December 2 against the ONE interim heavyweight world champion Anatoly Malykhin.

On training with Almeida, de Ridder spoke to ONE:

“[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.”

The Brazilian heavyweight stated, in an interview with ONE, that he learned much from de Ridder. Almeida explained:

“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.”