Brazilian grappling ace Marcus “Buchecha’ Almeida credits his rivalry with fellow jiu-jitsu superstar Rodolfo Vieira as among the things that pushed him to become the successful and celebrated combat sports athlete that he is now.
He shared this in a recent video post on Instagram, where he also took time to invite fans to see a documentary on him on YouTube entitled, Buchecha: Far Beyond World Records.
In the post, the American Top Team/Evolve MMA affiliate spoke of what Rodolfo Vieira meant to his career and others who had the privilege of sharing the battlefield with ‘The Black Belt Hunter.’
‘Buchecha’ wrote:
“It’s hard to talk about my career without mentioning this rivalry against @rodolfovieira89 In the movie I tell how he helped me to become the athlete I am today. Thank you so much for encouraging me to train the way I trained for these fights and thank you for continuing to inspire us all in your MMA career.”
Check out the post below:
‘Buchecha’ and Rodolfo Vieira had a lot of competitive grappling battles on the international stage, including the ADCC World Championship, until the latter decided to transition to mixed martial arts beginning in 2017.
In MMA, the 33-year-old Vieira has compiled an impressive record of nine wins and two losses to date.
It is the same success that ‘Buchecha’ wants to have as he continues with his own MMA journey under ONE Championship, his home since 2021.
The 33-year-old Brazilian won his four matches in impressive fashion before slumping to his first defeat last month.
‘Buchecha’ fell to Oumar ‘Reug Reug’ Kane by unanimous decision in their featured heavyweight clash on August 4. He fought from start to finish but just could not get the nod of the judges in the end.
Despite the defeat, the 17-time BJJ world champion believes it would only make him better moving forward and is now more than ever determined to continue his MMA campaign, with the end goal of vying for a world title down the line.
You can watch the full documentary on ‘Buchecha’ here: