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The 17-time Brazilian jiu-jitsu world champion and all-round legend Marcus ‘Buchecha’ Almeida is one of the hottest tickets on ONE Championship’s burgeoning heavyweight roster right now. However, after hearing positive comments about him from none other than two-division ONE world champion Reinier de Ridder, the Brazilian revealed ‘The Dutch Knight’ as one of his MMA idols.
‘Buchecha’ is scheduled to face former ONE interim heavyweight world title challenger Kirill Grishenko at ONE on Prime Video 1: Moraes vs. Johnson II. The event takes place live from the Singapore Indoor Stadium and will broadcast on US prime-time via Amazon Prime Video on August 26.
De Ridder recently had high praise for ‘Buchecha’, recounting his rolls with the legend at the American Top Team in Florida earlier this year. The Brazilian legend says the respect he shares for ‘The Dutch Knight’ is mutual.
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He told ONE Championship in a recent interview:
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“I felt blessed to hear that from him because he’s one of the guys that I look up to in MMA. So when I found out that he also looks up to me, it was like, ‘Oh, my God, [I’m] really, really honored.’”
'Buchecha' is a fan of Reinier de Ridder in ONE Championship
It would be hard not to look up to Reinier de Ridder as the undefeated Dutch double champion has cleaned out practically two divisions. His legendary run in ONE Championship has included impressive submission victories over Vitaly Bigdash, Kiamrian Abbasov, Aung La N Sang, and Fan Rong.
In addition to defending his multiple world titles in MMA, 'The Dutch Knight' has also competed against Brazilian jiu-jitsu all-time great Andre Galvao. The Brazilian has won dozens of submission grappling world championships, and despite being undersized, grappled De Ridder to a draw at ONE X.
The Dutch champion holds the middleweight and light heavyweight world titles but has set his goals even higher. He is looking to make history as the first triple-weight world champion in ONE and capture a heavyweight world title in the organization.
Reigning two-division titleholder De Ridder called out the ONE heavyweight world champion in his ONE X post-fight speech. He said:
"Give me [Arjan] Bhullar. If they don't want to do it at heavyweight, if he doesn't want to do it at heavyweight, I'll put my belt on the line. Let's do it at light heavyweight... Historic thing to get three belts."
After submitting former titleholder Bigdash at ONE 159, De Ridder declared in his post-fight interview:
“This is what I do. I beat the champions. I beat every f***ing champion. Now, maybe another one, maybe a little bit of a heavier one.”
Marcus ‘Buchecha’ Almeida showed tremendous respect for ONE's middleweight and light heavyweight champion. Reinier de Ridder is now setting his sights on heavyweight.
