Marcus “Buchecha” Almeida – a 13-time BJJ world champion and two-time ADCC gold medalist – made his MMA debut in Singapore this Friday morning and fought kickboxing athlete Anderson “Braddock” Silva; in a heavyweight fight at ONE Championship: Revolution… And won in less than three minutes!
He wasted no time on his feet; getting a knockdown in the first seconds of the game and immediately transitioning to the Mount. Almeida then combined a couple of strikes from the position before moving to Side Control and then to North-South, landing knee strikes to the opponent’s head.
Buchecha acquired a good choke on Silva’s head, but thought that he didn’t have a solid grip. When he heard his coach Leonardo Vieira yell that Silva’s about to tap, Almeida squeezed as hard as he could – and got the submission.
Buchecha’s grounded knees went AIRBORNE! ✈️ @MarcusBuchecha #ONERevolution #WeAreONE #ONEChampionship pic.twitter.com/4hebCAvgNa
— ONE Championship (@ONEChampionship) September 24, 2021
BJJ legend Buchecha 🇧🇷 FINISHES Anderson Silva with a north-south choke in his mixed martial arts debut! 🥋 @MarcusBuchecha #ONERevolution #WeAreONE #ONEChampionship pic.twitter.com/73ft7TYq78
— ONE Championship (@ONEChampionship) September 24, 2021
However, prior to his MMA debut, Buchecha said that he was doubtful about his Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu skills. In an interview for MMA Fighting, he claimed the following:
The first four months were a shock. It’s a whole other sport. I saw that my jiu-jitsu didn’t work, ‘my jiu-jitsu sucks,’ but it’s just different. Jiu-jitsu guys think they’ll come in and take people down and catch them, but they won’t. It’s different.
I remember taking people down and they’re getting back up, taking their backs and they would end up on top. It was very frustrating. I was losing positions on a daily basis that there was no way I would lose training jiu-jitsu. It was very frustrating at first.
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