Marcus ‘Buchecha’ Focuses on Things He Can Control Ahead of MMA Debut at One ‘Revolution’

One of the greatest heavyweight grapplers of all time is finally crossing over to mixed martial arts, a little later than he had planned.

It has been a long journey that brought Marcus Almeida from winning on tatami all over the world to the MMA cage. “Buchecha” has been teasing the transition since 2015, but didn’t make up his mind until last July, when he signed with One Championship. The Singapore-based promotion encountered a few hindrances on their way to bringing the 13-time Mundials champion inside the circle, as his promotional debut kept being pushed back. The American Top Team representative was supposed to tangle with Oumar Kane at One on TNT 1 for his first foray in the One heavyweight division, but the promotion opted to match him with Ji Won Kang at One on TNT 2. Ultimately, both matchups fell off their events. Recently, the 31-year-old Brazilian was attached to face Thomas Narmo, but the latter pulled out of the fight and was replaced by Glory alum Anderson Silva.

“It is what it is,” Almeida told Sherdog about his MMA debut being pushed back. “I’m not the guy that’s going to complain like, ‘Oh, why me, why me?’ I’ve never been one of those people and I think everything happens for a reason. I’m not the guy that suffers for anything. I think the man who suffers and [despairs] suffers more than necessary. If something doesn’t happen and you can’t do anything about it, you just have to accept it. That’s how I see things in life. If something doesn’t happen the way I want and I can’t do something about it, I just have to accept it. The fight got canceled, the fight got pushed, no problems. I keep training, I keep my focus, it is what it is. I don’t complain, I don’t feel sad, I don’t be upset, I just accept it and do what I can do. What I can do is keep training, keep my focus, keep evolving and getting better. That’s how I see it.”

Tudor Leonte started writing about mixed martial arts in 2013 for Italian media outlets. His journey with Sherdog began in 2018 and now he covers One Championship and countless European shows. You can follow him on Twitter @MrTudorLeonte.