Marcus ‘Buchecha’ Almeida has continued his professional MMA career in incredibly exciting fashion by registering another first-round submission win in the ONE FC cage, this time against undefeated Korean heavyweight fighter Kang Ji Won. It wasn’t just his performance that was impressive however as this fight took place less than three months after he made his professional debut against Anderson ‘Braddock’ Silva and won that fight by submission in the first round as well. While this might not seem like long enough to prepare for an opponent, he was originally scheduled to fight Kang Ji Won for his debut, but the fighter was forced to withdraw for undisclosed reasons.
The success that Almeida has enjoyed in the ONE FC cage shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise as he is the most successful IBJJF world champion in history, with thirteen gold medals at the event to his name. He isn’t taking the transition to MMA lightly at all either, as he recently revealed that he is leaving BJJ behind for the foreseeable future in order to focus on developing the other areas of his game to excel in his MMA career. That being said, it doesn’t seem like he really needs to given that he’s already defeated an elite GLORY kickboxing champion and an undefeated MMA striker using pretty much exclusively his grappling skills.
It is worth noting that despite register both his first and second MMA win by way of submission, Marcus ‘Buchecha’ Almeida has looked increasingly comfortable on the feet as well during the short span of time he’s spent there. In this fight he stood with Kang Ji Won only briefly before landing a crisp double-leg takedown and passing immediately into mount, where he softened his opponent up with strikes before taking his back. From there the fight was virtually over as Almeida locked up a rear-naked choke using the palm-to-palm grip and forced his opponent to tap.
The full ONE: Winter Warriors event replay, including Marcus ‘Buchecha’ Almeida registering his second professional MMA win by way of submission against Kang Ji Won, will be available to watch on the ONE FC YouTube Channel, click here to watch.
