Marcus ‘Buchecha’ Almeida is one of the most successful BJJ competitors in the history of the sport, so there aren’t many greater experts on which UFC fighters have the best Jiu-Jitsu. He also has a pretty successful MMA career of his own as well, going 5-1 since he made his successful debut back in 2021. Four of those wins have come by way of submission too, so Buchecha is very familiar with what it takes to get Jiu-Jitsu to work well in MMA. The times have changed since Royce Gracie dominated at UFC 1 though, and there aren’t that many fighters who have managed to reach the very highest level of success while primarily relying on Jiu-Jitsu.
That means that there weren’t many options for Buchecha to choose from, and he immediately picked out the two most popular candidates:
“I would say between Charles Oliveira and Gilbert Burns.”
Buchecha took a minute to think a little harder and not only did he explain why he chose Oliveira and Burns, but he also added a third name to his list:
“And (Alexandre) Pantoja… I mean Pantoja is showing a lot, of course Charles he has the most submissions in the company. Gilbert Burns I think is one guy that uses his Jiu-Jitsu really well too. So I think, top of my head, these three guys.”
Although he’s very well for himself at ONE Championship, he recently decided to become a free agent when his contract expired. It makes sense then that Marcus ‘Buchecha’ Almeida been paying attention to the state of Jiu-Jitsu in the heavyweight divisions elsewhere, and his final choice was a UFC fighter from that weight class:
“Almeida from the heavyweight, Jailton, he has good Jiu-Jitsu as well.”
The full interview with Marcus ‘Buchecha’ Almeida where he picks out the UFC fighters with the best Jiu-Jitsu was uploaded to the official YouTube channel of the JAXXON podcast:
