Marcus “Buchecha” Almeida is the singlemost successful IBJJF World Championship competitor of all time, with thirteen gold medals to his name, and as such his MMA debut has been huge news for quite some time. Sadly, it seems as though fans of elite-level grappling action may have to wait just a little bit longer again before seeing Buchecha make the transition to MMA. He was originally scheduled to fight the undefeated Senegalese wrestler, Oumar “Reug Reug” Kane, for ONE FC on February 24th, but Kane has now been rescheduled against another opponent, Alain Ngalani, instead.
There’s been no official word on why the fight between Kane and Buchecha has been called off as yet, although rumours indicate that it may be due to an injury that he has suffered in training. This wouldn’t exactly be unheard of, as a knee injury was what delayed the original plans for his MMA debut back in 2020. That being said, it seems unusual given that he has been posting photos after what appears to be hard sparring sessions on his official Instagram account as recently as today (at the time of writing).
Whatever the reason for Marcus “Buchecha” Almeida having to withdraw from his long-awaited MMA debut, fans around the world will be devastated at having to wait even longer to see the most successful IBJJF World Champion in history enter the cage. With two ADCC World Championship gold medals under his belt too, Buchecha has already achieved everything there is to achieve in BJJ and submission grappling at the age of 30. Despite the relatively short time he’ll have to progress in his MMA career, that level of grappling pedigree in the Heavyweight division is a virtual guarantee of success, and we can’t wait to see what he does with it.
