Marcus ‘Buchecha’ Almeida, a heavyweight contender and legend in the sport of Brazilian jiu-jitsu, feels that it is regrettable that world champion fighter Francis Ngannou was unable to sign with ONE Championship. However, he is not bothered by the news since he believes that there are still high-caliber opponents under the promotion for him to face.
When it was reported that ‘The Predator’ was contemplating signing with ONE Championship after becoming a free agent earlier this year, Buchecha was excited about the prospect of competing against him.
Francis Ngannou was involved in a protracted legal battle regarding a contract with his previous employer when he made the decision to leave the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) and pursue a career as a free agent.
It was rumoured that the camp of the Cameroonian-French fighter and ONE were already deep in discussions when differences on certain “non-financial matters” pushed the contract to fail. However, the rumour turned out to be true.
Buchecha, who is widely regarded as one of the most accomplished heavyweight competitors, acknowledged in an interview with the South China Morning Post that it would have been a dream come true to compete against Ngannou. However, he is moving on and shifting his attention to other high-caliber competitors competing in his division.
The BJJ world champion who won 17 times stated:
“[I’m not particularly disappointed], to be honest. Before I battle him, I have so many other competitors in this organisation that I want to take on. Of course, coming into battle with one of the best will be an amazing experience, but there are so many more men that I want to go off against first. Although it would be awesome to face him, I’m not going to be too upset if it doesn’t happen. [4:30 onwards]
Check out the interview that was just posted:
Since making his debut in ONE Championship in 2021, Buchecha has competed in four bouts and has yet to taste loss.
His victories all came by way of first-round finishes, the most recent of which was a submission win over Kirill Grishenko of Belarus by way of a heel hook just 64 seconds into the match. All of his victories came by way of first-round finishes.
He has voiced the hope that he will eventually get a shot at the ONE heavyweight world title that is still to be decided by the reigning division king Arjan Bhullar and the ONE interim heavyweight world champion Anatoly Malykhin later this year. Bhullar and Malykhin are the two fighters who now hold the titles for their respective weight classes.
