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Marcus ‘Buchecha’ Almeida: “Work Hard – I Promise It’ll Be Worth It”

Marcus ‘Buchecha’ Almeida: “Work Hard – I Promise It’ll Be Worth It”

Marcus “Buchecha” Almeida is one of the greatest Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu athletes of all time – with 13 black belt world titles and 2 ADCC championship titles to his name. He is now also a successful MMA fighter under ONE Championship; winning both of his fights by the way of submission.
Following his most recent win, BJJEE had a short conversation with Buchecha about his BJJ training, his titles, working hard, and why he treasures friendships he made along the way much more than the golden medals.

 

BJJEE: Thank you for your time, Marcus. In your recent interview for MMA Junkie, you’ve hinted that it’s time to move on from competing in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.
Will you still keep training BJJ in the gi? Or are you now focused on training BJJ solely for the purpose of MMA?

Buchecha: Yeah, of course. BJJ is going to be something that is going to be in my life forever. I’m not training it in the gi as much as I want to, but I’m training no-gi pretty much every day now.
But I still train [in the gi] at least once per week. Of course, my focus now is training in no-gi, just to get better in my no-gi game.

BJJEE: So you still make time for gi training, even though you aren’t competing in it?

Buchecha: I’m still training BJJ [in the gi] because I love it. I’m training because it’s something I’m passionate about, but I’m not training for competition. When I train in the gi, it’s something that I love and I’m not thinking about competing – especially because I don’t like the rulesets nowadays. So I just train because I love it, not because I’m planning to compete. Otherwise, I would be competing still.

I train because I love to be in the gym, I love to be around my friends; but I don’t think about it competition-wise anymore because I don’t like the rulesets.

BJJEE: And then, what was the transition like from being a professional BJJ athlete to a professional MMA fighter? Was it a big change?

Buchecha: Yeah, well… I’ve been training professionally my whole life. I’ve been training hard since I was like 14 years old. So, it wasn’t [as big of a transition].
Of course, now I got to train Boxing, Muay Thai, Wrestling, Jiu-Jitsu… So, of course there’re a lot of other things to train. But, my focus is the same as it’s always been. I’ve been training hard – I wanna get better, I want to evolve. So I try to use the same mindset in MMA that I had throughout my whole Jiu-Jitsu career, and I think it’s working pretty well.

BJJEE: And that mindset has worked greatly for you, considering that you earned 13 black belt world titles and are a 2x ADCC champion. Which one of these titles/championships means the most to you?

Buchecha: It’s impossible to pick one. Because every title has a special place in my personal history.
All titles have the same importance to me. It’s impossible to pick one; because the first one is important, the one after my injury is important, the last one before I retired is important… So, it’s impossible to say. Every title has a big space in my history and in my heart, I’ll never be able to pick just one.

BJJEE: You are one of the greatest to ever do it. What do you think is the most important thing for success – both in BJJ and in life?

Buchecha: That’s a really important question. I think that the “secret”… Well, I don’t know if it’s a secret. But, at least for me, [the key] was the combination of hard work and being passionate about something.
My whole life I’ve been passionate about Jiu-Jitsu and I worked hard. So, when you mix those two together, I think that’s the perfect combination. And when you put your hard work in, when you’re 100% into that, there’s no way it’ll go wrong.

It doesn’t matter if it’s in your sport, in your personal life… If you put your 100% into working hard in something and you’re passionate about it – that’s the secret. Work hard, and you’re going to get there.

I’m just a simple guy who came out of nowhere. My family had no history in martial arts, and yet I made it. I’m just a simple guy who worked hard… Who rode his bike sometimes for 40km a day.
If it was possible for me, I believe it’s possible for anyone. But of course, it’s not going to be easy. It’s going to be hard. But I promise you, it’s going to be worth it. If I did it, you can do it too – just believe in yourself.

 

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BJJEE: Thank you for the great advice, Marcus. And lastly, when you look back on everything you’ve achieved so far, which lessons have you learned along the way?

Buchecha: Yeah, I don’t think that you can do anything in life while thinking about “today”. Because, I’ve seen my close friends changing because they won a title or a gold medal… And I promised myself that I would never become one of those people.

So, everything that you build, everything that you conquer as an athlete… It’s not about being a world champion or being something like that. Because that’s just something that’s going to fade away.
I think that the most important thing is to keep everything that you built – during your whole life. So, all the friendships; all the people that I’ve met and that I still have a good relationship with, I think that’s going to last forever.

The titles, the gold medals, that’s all going to just fade away. Soon, there’ll be a “new Buchecha”, a new world champion…
So, I try to keep the friendships, everything that I built as a person. I think that’s most important. The titles, the name that I have… That’s just going to be something that will fade away. It’s not the most important thing. It’s what you built in your personal life throughout – that’s what matters.

Sloth Jiu-Jitsu: you can be slow and unathletic and still kick butt in Jiu-Jitsu.

Welcome to SLOTH Jiu-jitsu – the ultimate programme for conserving energy, utilising body weight and taking your time! An especially effective strategy for older or less athletic competitors, but suitable and highly recommended for all jiu-jitsu practitioners. 12 chapters taught in person by 3rd Degree BJJ Black Belt Gile Huni.