Marcus “Buchecha” Almeida is well positioned for a shot at the ONE Championship heavyweight title, but is in no hurry to challenge the reigning champion, Arjan Bhullar. Buchecha asserted himself as a top heavyweight contender at ONE: Winter Warriors in Singapore on Friday night, submitting previously unbeaten South Korean knockout artist Kang Ji-won with a first-round rear-naked choke. It was the best performance he could have hoped for. Buchecha 🇧🇷 MANHANDLES Kang Ji Won, winning via first-round rear-naked choke! 💪 @MarcusBuchecha #WeAreONE #ONEChampionship #ONEWinterWarriors | How To Watch: https://t.co/YlCCWjOPa1 pic.twitter.com/wMDHF4NJT0 — ONE Championship (@ONEChampionship) December 3, 2021 “It feels perfect for me,” the 31-year-old Brazilian (2-0) told the Post immediately after his victory. “The game plan worked out really well.” “People know I want to use jiu jitsu so they probably train a lot their takedown defence, so I didn’t want to try to take him down so fast,” the decorated Brazilian jiu jitsu black belt continued. “You guys could see I was ready to strike. I was feeling my hands, feeling the distance, but I saw the opportunity for the takedown, so that’s why I did it. But I thought we would fight for 15 minutes. I was ready for that – of course it would be a lot of striking – but I’m glad I could get a takedown and use my jiu jitsu.” Buchecha made beating Kang (5-1) – who had finished all five of his previous wins by first-round knockout – look easy. Yet he says the victory wasn’t as effortless as it appeared. ONE: Stamp ‘surprised’ as she submits Phogat in Grand Prix final In fact, the Brazilian admitted he might have found himself in a tough spot had Kang not tapped when he did. “It looks easy, but he’s really tough,” he said. “I was giving 100 per cent. For a moment I thought he wouldn’t tap because he has a huge heart, but my coach was telling me ‘he’s about to tap’, so I believed him. “It wasn’t easy. I was expending a lot of energy. If he didn’t tap it would have been hard to keep controlling him.” Ahead of the ONE: Winter Warriors card, Kang was regarded as one of the top contenders in the heavyweight division. Having beaten the South Korean, Buchecha now finds himself in a similar position. However, you won’t catch him demanding a title shot just yet. Despite his staggering list of accomplishments on the submission grappling circuit, he’s still very new to MMA, and is content to continue fighting other contenders for the time being. “I just have two fights [in MMA],” he said. “I’m just learning, step-by-step, day-by day, so I’m not in a rush like that. If you count, I have five minutes of cage time, so it wouldn’t make sense for the organisation to give me the title shot, being honest.” “I hope I can fight three, four times [in 2022],” he added. “I don’t have to cut weight, I just have to show up and fight, so I hope three or four fights for sure.” This patient approach served Buchecha well during his time on the professional grappling circuit, and he believes it will serve him well in MMA too. “I never like to think too much about the future in my career,” he said. “I just live one day after another. I did that in grappling, I did that in jiu jitsu. I never planned anything, everything happened in a natural way. I’m going to keep it the same way [in MMA]. I’m not going to think too much about the future.”