Marcus ‘Buchecha’ Almeida is one of the most successful BJJ competitors in the history of the sport and he might be taking the next big step in his MMA career soon, as the UFC reportedly has ‘serious interest’ in signing him. He left Jiu-Jitsu rather suddenly in 2019 in order to prepare for his MMA debut, which he eventually made under the ONE Championship banner two years later. ONE are the only promotion that Buchecha has ever fought for and over the course of the last four years, he’s put together a solid 5-1 professional record against some of the best heavyweights they have.
His MMA career could not have started out better, as he won his first four fights inside of a year and every single one of them was a highlight-reel finish in the first round. That’s when things stalled a little for Buchecha, as it took almost another year for him to get find another willing opponent to fight. When he finally did manage to book his long-awaited fifth fight, he suffered the first loss of his career against Oumar ‘Reug Reug’ Kane. The takeaway from that fight was that Kane was able to shut down most of Buchecha’s takedown attempts and as a result, eliminate his greatest weapon.
It took another year for Buchecha to get his opportunity to right the ship but when it came around, he did just that with another first-round finish against Amir Aliakbari. Although grappling fans were eager to see Buchecha back in action, one of the biggest storylines around that fight actually happened off the mat. It was revealed prior to that fight that Buchecha would become a free agent after it, as he was choosing not to re-sign with ONE Championship. Now that his contract is up, Buchecha is obviously going to be very popular among the various MMA promotions in the world but the UFC has the deepest pockets if they truly do have the desire to sign him.
MMAFighting journalist Damon Martin was the first to report that the UFC was showing interest in signing Marcus ‘Buchecha’ Almeida in a recent post to his official X account:
