Marcus Buchecha Signs for ONE Championship

Marcus “Buchecha” Almeida has signed with Asia’s largest MMA promotion: ONE Championship. The 2 time ADCC champion has publicly documented his cross training for a long time. Spending time with boxing and MMA coach Jason Purillo for instance. Most recently working at American Kickboxing Academy (AKA). Famed for producing UFC champions Cain Velasquez, Daniel Cormier, Luke Rockhold and Khabib Nurmagomedov.

AKA fighters generally employ a wrestle heavy, pressure heavy and boxing heavy style which should lend itself well to Buchecha. Entirely because of his current pedigree of athletic, pressure passing based grappling. 

13 x Black Belt World Champion Buchecha, firstly took to Instagram to announce his signing to the Asian MMA/Muay Thai promotion:

I am honored to announce that I am a part of one of the biggest MMA promotions in the world, the @onechampionship.
I am really happy and very excited to be part of the ONE family and grateful for everything that is happening in my life right now.
Thank you very much @yodchatri and @onechampionship for the opportunity and I can’t wait for the future ahead.

This came only a few days after signing with controversial management outfit Dominance MMA. Head of Dominance MMA, Ali Abdelaziz took to Instagram to introduce his own latest signing:

Welcome to #DominanceMMA @marcusbuchecha
I’m so honored that Marcus become part of our team. P4P one of the best BJJ fighters in the world. He’s a 13 time world champion, 2 time ADCC champion, 7 time world cup champion. @dominance_mma

Secondly, Gordon Ryan a fellow grappler that himself has often touted an imminent transition to MMA, also took to Instagram to congratulate his rival:

Im not sure people grasp the magnitude of this. The winningest athlete EVER in our sport has just signed with ONE of the largest and most prestigious MMA organizations to ever exist. I am so incredibly pumped to see @marcusbuchecha carry our flag in MMA and see where it takes him. Huge congrats to @onechampionship and @yodchatri for making this happen.

Thirdly, UFC fighter and future BJJ Hall Of Famer Rodolfo Viera took to an interview with GracieMag welcoming the idea of Buchecha taking to MMA:

“I’m happy with his decision,” said Rodolfo. “Buchecha, besides my friend, is a guy that I admire a lot. I was even sad when he said he was thinking about fighting MMA and didn’t come, because we were even watering our mouths to see Buchecha finally shining with gloves. I think everyone wanted to see a spectacular guy like him representing our wonderful Jiu-Jitsu. I support him too much and I really want to see him in MMA, I’m looking forward to it. “

Will Buchecha follow the path of Ex-ONE Championship champion Roger Gracie’s path and claim gold with the promotion? Lets find out.