Only a year after suffering a horrific knee injury Marcus Almeida Buchecha made a triumphant comeback and reclaimed the Ultra heavyweight throne at the World Championships from Gabriel Lucas.
This time Buchecha was facing Joao Gabriel in the semifinals and James Puopolo in finals. He managed to win both matches via submissions, armbar over Gabriel and armlock over Puopolo.
In the absolute, in a much anticipated match against Erberth Santos, Buchecha scored a slim victory. He won 6 to 4. You might say the cooler heads prevailed and that Almeida was determined to keep up with the pace and assert himself right from the start. Erberth Santos was the pleasant surprise of the tournament eliminating Faria in the semifinals and providing an all around great performance in all his matches. However it wasn’t enough and in the end Buchecha won and reclaimed the Absolute category.
Buchecha shared on instagram the motivation for his return to the top level:
“The first photo is from when I left the gymnasium of the 2015´s Worlds with a knee injury (3 ruptured ligaments) and a lot of pain.
Despite the physical pain I had to deal with my emotional pain. The noise of people applauding and celebrating my lost, in the worst moment of my career, it left me with a broken heart to compete ever again. However, the anger of those noises of happiness that I felt at the moment of my accident was gone. All that feeling turned into a motivation and a promise to myself. I promised myself that I would return and this time I would not leave it in the same conditions as last year, inside an ambulance.
I remember very well the trip from the Pyramid (gymnasium) to the hospital and everything that was passing thought my mind. After my surgery I thought that it was all over, I would never be the same ¨Buchecha¨ as I was before my injury, but thanks God I chose the right people to stay next to me during my recovery. They made me believe that I could return and even stronger that ever.
I never thought that I could agree with it but today I am indeed convinced. This injury made me grow as athlete and as human being. During these 10 months of recovery, I dedicated 100% of myself to my rehabilitation and my come back to the BJJ scene. I remember people saying that after 3 months of hard training it would impossible for me to return and compete in the world championship and that I was out of shape. But despite all the comments I was determined and I had an objective in my life – This time is not professional, now is personal.
I just wanted to return to that competition (a year after my injury) and prove that I could make it. So I putted my master plan in practise. My BJJ game started to flow, my mind was focused and my faith has always been there. Day by day I was feeling better and my self-esteem was growing again. I remember the day I registered my name to attend the 2016´s World championship and everything that I have been through during these 10 months. The second photo is the scream that was stuck in my throat. The scream of victory, the scream of my return, the scream of shutting all the doubts”.
