Marcus “Buchecha” Almeida and Gordon Ryan have met once before in the final of the absolute division at ADCC 2019, where Ryan one by the thinnest of margins thanks to a penalty incurred by Buchecha. Now it seems as though the stars might be aligning for fans to see a rematch between these two elite grapplers, but under MMA rules instead. Buchecha hasn’t actually competed in grappling since that match, as he’s been preparing for his MMA debut with ONE FC ever since, a fight that has been cancelled or postponed numerous times since then.
Originally, he was scheduled to face undefeated Senegalese wrestling champion Oumar “Reug Reug” Kane but was forced to withdraw from the fight at the last minute. Shortly after that withdrawal, he also suffered a pretty serious knee injury in training that kept him away from it for quite some time and there was no news of when he’d be able to compete again. It was only a matter of weeks ago that his long-awaited MMA debut was scheduled again, this time against another undefeated Heavyweight in Ji Won Kang.
Now, news has surfaced that this time his opponent has been forced to withdraw and Buchecha has had his debut pushed back again, but he’s still eager to compete soon. In a recent interview with MyMMANews, Buchecha talked about his fight cancellation and the recent slapping incident between Gordon Ryan and Andre Galvao. He also explained that he was hesitant to have a rematch of the ADCC 2019 absolute final with Ryan, but after Ryan joined him in signing for ONE FC, he’d definitely be interested in an MMA fight with him instead.
The interview was uploaded to the official YouTube channel of John Hyon Ko, reporting on behalf of MyMMANews:
