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13-time Brazilian jiu-jitsu world champion Marcus Buchecha will be back in action on May 20 at ONE 157. He has won both of his MMA outings via submission, which leads us to the question, can the Brazilian legend earn another submission victory at ONE 157?
Marcus Buchecha will be taking on new opponent Hugo Cunha, who is a grappler by trade as well. Cunha is a nationally ranked wrestler out of Brazil and quickly parlayed his wrestling career into an MMA career with a 6-1 record coming into this fight.
Normally when two grapplers face one another, they tend to stand a trade rather than take the fight to their opponents wheelhouse. It may not be each fighter's forte but they have both been making strides in the striking department since being signed.
Likely though, we will see this fight hit the mat at some point and that is when we will get to see Buchecha shine. It would be hard not to envision Marcus Buchecha not making it three in a row with yet another submission victory inside the ONE Championship circle.
Marcus Buchecha could insert himself in the title picture with a win at ONE 157
Marcus Buchecha is coming into his next fight against Cunha with a ton of momentum on his side. He is on the cusp of a potential heavyweight title fight with a win at ONE 157.
Rich Franklin spoke about the future of Marcus Buchecha and the heavyweight division in a recent appearance on Morning Kombat with Luke Thomas and Brian Campbell:
“I’ve been excited to see Buchecha back. As a fan, I’m sitting here wanting to see Buchecha win because I want to see him in the title mix up here coming in the future. As we know, Arjan Bhullar, all the contract stuff we had going on with him are now settled. He’s back in the mix of things. He’ll be coming back in later this year. We have the interim champ, Anatoly Malykhin… I really like watching Anatoly. We have a good mix of heavyweights at this point in time, so it’s gonna be interesting to see what happens with Buchecha after this and how he starts mixing himself up into heavyweight title hunt.”
Check out the full interview below:
There is a lot to be excited about in the heavyweight division, especially with current champion Arjan Bhullar signing a new contract and getting ready to make his return to unify the belt against Anatoliy Malykhin.
After those two battle it out, the rest of the heavyweight division is wide open. Buchecha has to seize the opportunity by scoring a big win at ONE 157 which will help him find his way to the title shot.
