Marcus Vinícius Oliveira de Almeida was born on January 8, 1990, in Santos, São Paulo, Brazil. He is a Brazilian mixed martial artist and first-degree BJJ practitioner who is popularly known as ‘Buchecha’.
While growing up, Almeida often visited the beach and aspired to be a professional surfer. Marcus was forced to go to the gym with his sister when she began learning Brazilian jiu-jitsu when he was 14 years old so their father Clayton could watch over her.
When Almeida first stepped onto the mats, he immediately fell in love with the grappling and was inspired to become an expert.
Marcus and Clayton then began practicing jiu-jitsu as well, which led to both of them earning black belts and Clayton winning the IBJJF Masters World Championship.
The Brazilian won his first IBJJF World Title in 2010 in no-gi competition. He would eventually go on to win 17 BJJ World Championships.
Additionally, Almeida is a black belt under Rodrigo Cavaca. He also gave Almeida the moniker ‘Buchecha’. It translates to ‘cheek’ and alludes to his once-chubby cheeks from his weight problems.
After concluding that he had achieved all he could in the BJJ world, Almeida decided to shift into the MMA world.
Despite expressing interest in switching to mixed martial arts since 2015, news of Almeida’s multi-year deal with ONE Championship became public in July 2020, four years after it was inked. He had been receiving mixed martial arts training at the American Kickboxing Academy. Additionally, he had also participated in the heavyweight division.
Almeida’s impending BJJ bout with Fabrcio Werdum in August 2020 had to be cancelled due to a knee injury. This postponed the start of his ONE FC MMA career.
At ONE Championship, Almeida was slated to face Oumar Kane on his MMA debut. Regrettably, Almeida was substituted by Alain Ngalani on January 13, 2021. This was apparently due to him sustaining an injury while training.
Following his injury recovery, he was scheduled to face Kang Ji-Won at ONE on TNT 1 in his MMA debut. Later, Kang pulled out of the match for an unclear reason.
Almeida was supposed to take against Thomas Narmo at ONE Championship: Revolution in September 2021. But for an unclear reason, Narmo withdrew from the match and Anderson ‘Braddock’ Silva took his position. He used a north-south choke to win the match in the opening round.
In December 2021, Almeida and Kang Ji Won squared up at ONE: Winter Warriors. In the first round, he secured a win via a rear-naked choke.
Almeida was supposed to take compete against Oumar “Reug Reug” Kane at ONE 156 on April 22, 2022. Kane pulled out of the match due to an injury, and Hugo Cunha took his place. But the match was called off when Cunha tested positive for COVID-19.
Almeida was then scheduled to compete against Simon Carson in June 2022 at ONE 158. He stopped Carson with ground and pound halfway through the first round to earn the victory via technical knockout.
Almeida then competed against Kirill Grishenko at ONE on Prime Video 1 in August 2022. He submitted Kirill with a heel hook early in the first round to win the match. With this victory, he was given the Performance of the Night award.
At ONE Fight Night 13, Almeida will compete against Oumar Kane on August 5, 2023.
In April 2023, a biopic with the title ‘Buchecha: Far Beyond World Records’ had its world debut.
Almeida embodies the spirit of martial arts, and he works tirelessly to hone his skills and develop into the best all-around warrior he is capable of becoming.
He will be competing agains Reug Reug in the immediate future.
