Marcus ‘Buchecha’ Almeida is one of the biggest legends in BJJ and his move to MMA has been spectacular so far, but he apparently considered retirement pretty early on. This was all down to one of the most contentious issues in MMA, the use of long-running exclusive contracts with matching clauses at the end. It’s a practice employed by every major MMA organization and it basically allows them to guarantee years of service from an athlete, followed by the ability to match any contract offer from a rival promotion afterward. The issue is even bleeding over into BJJ right now and has been heavily criticised by several different high-profile competitors.
Buchecha signed with ONE Championship to make his MMA debut and spent six fights over more than three years fighting there. He revealed in an interview with MMAFighting that this was actually a result of the initial contract he signed in 2020:
“It was hard to get out of that contract, but we did it. I went there and was a man (of my word), signed a six-fight contract and did all my six fights and left through the front door. But now, as you said, I’m free. I’m excited to fight. It’s been a while since I’ve entered a fight without all that stress in the backstage. Many people only see what happens when you step into the ring or cage and fight, but there’s a lot going on behind the scenes. It’s a lot of stress. It’s bad for the mental health of the athlete. I’ve had bad days, but now it’s all in the past. There’s only good things coming ahead.”
He isn’t alone either, many elite fighters have lost years of their career attempting to work their way out of exclusive contracts. Marcus ‘Buchecha’ Almeida even considered retirement instead:
“It crossed my mind many times to retire because I couldn’t take it no more, that was killing me inside. Not having a fight and not being able to fight. When you have a contract like that, not only with that organization, when you can’t even fight in other sports. In this case, imagine me being unable to even compete in jiu-jitsu. That was something that bothered me a lot. But thank God it’s over. It was quite stressful, but now (I’m) free and ready for the new challenges.”
He has been open about wanting to leave ONE Championship for quite some time too, and even announced that he would enter free agency prior to his final fight. The effects of an exclusive contract don’t end there though, as promotions also have the ability to match any offers for a certain period of time. This often adds to the length of time that fighters have to wait:
“After I finished my contract, after I did all six fights. I had to wait that matching period, which every contact has, but I already knew what I wanted, that I didn’t want to re-sign with them. And I knew there would be something out there for me when the contract ended. So I did a camp focused on the contract deadline. I knew it would be just a matter of time. It has taken eight months, but I knew I would be free after eight months. And signing with the UFC, which was my desire and dream, I knew the UFC would get me to fight quickly. Not for nothing, my contract ended now and I’m already fighting later this month. It’s been a dream for me.”
Now Marcus ‘Buchecha’ Almeida has gone from considering retirement to making his UFC debut in very short time. He now fights ranked heavyweight Martin Buday at UFC on ABC 9, but he was more than happy to face that challenge in his first fight for the promotion:
“When they said the UFC wanted to sign me I said, ‘I don’t even want to know when and against who, get me a fight. (Buday) is ranked, he’s tough. He’s a veteran in the UFC because he already has seven fights and six wins there, so he’s very tough. He has a lot of experience, way more than me in the sport, but I’m driven by challenges. I’m sure this will be the biggest challenge of my career so far, but I’m excited.”
