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ONE heavyweight MMA star and former 17-time BJJ world champion Marcus 'Buchecha' Almeida recently posted a photo of him training with former two-division UFC champion Daniel 'DC' Cormier. Almeida's time at Cormier's team, American Kickboxing Academy (AKA) in California, has been hugely instrumental to his success in MMA.
Here's the post:
"A couple years ago training with the Double Champ @dc_mma at @checkmathq ! #Tbt"
Cormier, in addition to being the only other UFC double-champ to defend both belts aside from Amanda Nuñez, is a 6-time US World Olympic team member for freestyle wrestling. He is also a former Pan American National champion and a 6-time US National champion. His superior wrestling acumen has helped 'DC' reach tremendous heights in MMA.
Almeida, in turn, showed AKA the intricacies of Brazilian jiu-jitsu and had Cormier learning the gentle art under him.
Cormier, together with his comrades at AKA, helped shape Almeida's overall MMA game from mere Jiu-jitsu grappler to all-around wrestling assassin. This was highly evident in Almeida's first year in ONE Championship as an MMA fighter.
'Buchecha' quickly became one of the most promising prospects in ONE's heavyweight MMA ranks. Going 4-0 with a 100% finishing rate in his first year alone, the entire MMA world was put on notice by the grappling icon.
His first four victims, Anderson 'Braddock' Silva, Kang Ji Won, Simon Carson, and former interim ONE heavyweight MMA world title challenger Kirill Grishenko, couldn't make it past the first round. 'Buchecha' seemed to have a full-proof plan for victory: jab-straight, blast-double, then finish on the ground.
Together with his developing striking game, 'Buchecha' is becoming a huge threat to anyone in his weight class. This is largely due to how well his stomping grounds were in the sport - thanks to men like Daniel Cormier. At the moment, no official bout has been linked to the BJJ specialist yet. But as of recent posts, it looks like he's gearing for a return in early 2024.
