Marcus “Buchecha” Almeida doesn’t need too much of an introduction. He is a 13x world champion and a 2x ADCC gold medal winner; now also a successful mixed martial arts fighter under ONE Championship.
These days, precisely because of his MMA career, Buchecha is primarily focused on no-gi when it comes to Jiu-Jitsu, as it translates fully into the octagon. However, BJJ in and of itself and training in the gi is still close to his heart:
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.
Nevertheless, as much as he loves training in the gi, he isn’t planning to compete in it anymore… Because of the rulesets:
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.
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What are your thoughts on the gi competition rulesets? Make sure to read our entire interview with Buchecha on the following link.
Sloth Jiu-Jitsu: you can be slow and unathletic and still kick butt in Jiu-Jitsu.