“Early morning rounds” - ‘Buchecha’ gets drills in with former foe Gordon Ryan, fellow MMA heavyweights

17-time Brazilian Jiu-jitsu world champion and ONE Championship heavyweight MMA star Marcus 'Buchecha' Almeida is ready to get back into fight camp.

In his most recent MMA bout, 'Buchecha' suffered the first loss of his MMA career when he participated in an unbelievable war with Senegalese wrestling star Oumar 'Reug Reug' Kane at ONE Fight Night 13 this past August.

In a recent photo posted on Almeida's Instagram account, we saw him in the training room with some heavyweight behemoths:

"Early morning rounds with Heavy Weights!"

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Almeida certainly keeps a lofty company for his training partners. In the picture with him are American Top Team coach Steve Mocco, MMA heavyweights Antonio 'Cara De Sapato' Jr., Marcelo Golm and Augusto Sakai. But perhaps the most recognizable man in the photo is Almeida's former rival, the consensus No-Gi Jiu-jitsu GOAT Gordon 'The King' Ryan.

Fans are reacting in various ways on the comments section:

@dodovalentin, @beto_miranda and @felipeetecmec were curious as to how the sparring with Almeida and Ryan went down:

"Who won buchecha or Gordon [Ryan]"

"Buchecha is bigger than gordon!"

"Just tell me you got Gordon"

A man from the photo, Augusto Sakai, commented on the post as well:

"Good training 🔥🤜🏻🤛🏻"

Grappling and training with such a big heavyweight really does pay dividends in the ring. In his first year as an MMA fighter alone, Almeida blasted through ONE's heavyweight MMA ranks by finishing all his opponents in the first round.

The grappling icon easily became one of the most feared prospects in MMA's heavyweight division. Going 4-0 with a 100% finishing rate in his freshman year alone, Almeida put the entire MMA world on notice.

Sky's the limit for the Brazilian heavyweight, who is at the peak of his prime at 33 years old. Fans can't wait for him to step inside the Circle and fight again.

About the author

Duane is an expert MMA writer at Sportskeeda with over 10 years of experience working for the likes of Philippine Star, Esquire Philippines, Playboy Philippines, etc. A major in English, he has written over 2000 articles for Sportskeeda section, extensively covering UFC and boxing fights.

Duane is a practicing MMA fighter with a 11-7 record. He is also a Brazilian jiu-jitsu purple belt and trains Muay Thai. His connection with MMA dates back to 2005, when he turned into a fan after watching Fedor Emelianenko defeat Mirko ‘Cro Cop’ Filipovic at Pride FC - Final Conflict 2005.

Emelianenko finds himself right at the top of Duane’s Mt. Rushmore of MMA fighters, alongside other big names like Demetrious Johnson, Jon Jones, Georges St-Pierre, and Anderson Silva.

Duane’s love for the sport is reflected in his writings, where he believes in speculating but not insinuating. He uses his intensive knowledge and skills in MMA to provide unique insights to the readers, along with sourcing information only from reliable sources.

Outside of work, Duane enjoys martial arts training, visual arts, film criticism, video games, and creative writing.

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Edited by Taimoor Malik