“This was a war” - ‘Buchecha’ looks back at his iconic victory over fellow legend Andre Galvao in the 2013 IBJJF Pan Americans

Marcus ‘Buchecha’ Almeida and Andre Galvao paid respects to each other while reflecting on their legendary throwback grappling match.

In 2013, Almeida and Galvao competed in the absolute division of the IBJJF Pan American championships. After each securing three wins, the Brazilian jiu-jitsu greats met in the finals for a historic matchup that is consistently discussed in the grappling community to this day.

Once the dust settled, Almeida emerged victorious on points with a score of 4-2. Over ten years later, IBJJF honored the action-packed match with a tribute post on Instagram. ‘Buchecha’ took to the comment section and had this to say:

“This was war, a pleasure to have shared the tatami in this Absolute final against @galvaobjj, legend of our sport 🙏🏻🙌🏻🤜🏼🤛🏼”

Marcus ‘Buchecha’ Almeida made his professional MMA debut under the ONE Championship banner in September 2021. The 17x BJJ world champion quickly made a name for himself with four consecutive wins, all in the first round.

Almeida was arguably one win away from a heavyweight MMA world title shot before suffering a setback last time out.

---

What’s next for Marcus ‘Buchecha’ Almeida?

In August 2023, Marcus Almeida was matched up against ‘Reug Reug’ Oumar Kane at ONE Fight Night 13. The ONE heavyweight MMA contenders went to war that night, with Kane emerging victorious by unanimous decision to likely earn a world title shot in his next fight.

As for Almeida, the American Top Team affiliate is 34 years old, which is relatively young for the heavyweight division. Therefore, he has time to turn things around if he can continue to evolve rapidly. ‘Buchecha’ is expected to return later this year and face another top contender to determine who takes a significant step toward ONE gold.

Luckily for Almeida, he will have plenty of time to catch up in the division. Earlier this year, three-division world champion Anatoly Malykhin knocked out Reinier de Ridder for middleweight MMA gold.

Therefore, the hard-hitting Russian must bounce around multiple divisions, with two contenders already ready at heavyweight (Amir Aliakbari and ‘Reug Reug’).