Marcus ‘Buchecha’ Almeida has recently shared some thoughts about the difficulty of making the switch from BJJ to MMA as he reflects on losing his UFC debut. He’s used to a high level of success of course, as he’s won almost every major event in BJJ and has more IBJJF World Championship titles than anyone else in history. He even continued that form when he first started his MMA career as well, as he rattled off four first-round finishes in a row. His rise to the top was derailed when he suffered his first loss to Oumar ‘Reug Reug’ Kane at ONE Fight Night 13 and although he rebounded from that, there were still questions around him.
The UFC signed him regardless and things were looking up for Buchecha, but then he dropped another decision in his debut and now finds himself at 5-2 in his MMA career. It hasn’t been smooth sailing despite his elite grappling skills, but Buchecha revealed that it isn’t actually striking that has been the hardest thing for him:
“A lot of people talk about the striking. Of course, no one likes to take a punch, right? But this is a thing that wasn’t the worst for me… What I felt was very difficult about the transition was the mixing, right? I’m there, I’m with the high guard, I’m trying… I grabbed it, I touched the leg, doing that isometry, boom, put it down. Then I’m there advancing, in a little while the guy pushes me, boom, get up. Then I have to go back, hand on foot again there.”
Obviously MMA is a very different sport to BJJ even though there is a lot of crossover, but Buchecha revealed that another element of difficulty comes from the grappling itself too:
“The reactions of everyone in MMA are completely different from the reactions of guys in Jiu-Jitsu.”
When talking about his UFC debut specifically, he also explained that there was a few problems during his training camp that presented an added challenge:
“I had some injuries, right? In this camp… It was the only MMA camp that I had this injury and it messed me up a lot. So I went to the bout there without being 100% confident.”
Despite the rollercoaster he’s been on as an MMA fighter, Buchecha has no intention of giving up on his goals:
“Like when I lost in Jiu-Jitsu, dang, I trained to go to the next championship and that’s exactly what I’m thinking right now.”
The full interview with Marcus ‘Buchecha’ Almeida where he talks about the difficulty of transitioning to MMA and his UFC loss was uploaded to the official YouTube channel of Overdogs Brasil:
