ONE Championship: Buchecha says heavyweight title shot ‘wouldn’t make sense’ despite submitting Kang Ji-won
- BJJ icon Marcus ‘Buchecha’ Almeida bursts into title contention with a first-round submission win at ONE: Winter Warriors
- Brazilian is in no rush, however, to challenge the Indian-Canadian champion Arjan Bhullar
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.
“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.