Marcus Buchecha is completely behind his teammate Luke Rockhold rematching Chris Weidman.
Marcus "Buchecha" Almeida is currently preparing with teammates at the American Kickboxing Academy (AKA) for his professional MMA debut. Almeida, 30, is one of the all-time most decorated grapplers, earning more than 30 gold medals across ADCC, IBJJF Worlds and beyond. Buchecha recently caught up with Fightful and touched on Rockhold coming out of retirement.
"He's feeling much better, he had the surgery. It was something that was bothering him and it's not anymore," the grappler said. "I've seen a lot of people talking about a second fight between him and Chris Weidman. I think that would be a great fight."
Almeida signed a multi-fight deal with ONE Championship, a move inspired by the success of other grapplers transitioning to MMA.
"It's really inspiring," he shared. "Of course, I can say the jiu-jitsu that did the transition to MMA did really well. Like Fabricio Werdum, Demian Maia. Guys I love to watch who carry the jiu-jitsu flag. Now Kron Gracie, Gary Tonon, Rodolfo Vieira, Gilbert Burns. It's always impressive watching these guys. For me, watching Rodolfo doing really good in his career right now was very inspiring because he was my biggest rival."
Vieira, one of Buchecha's greatest rivals, was also among his biggest supporters.
"He was one of the guys who gave me a lot of incentive and support to do it. It's always good to see these guys who used to be my rivals or teammates doing really well," Almeida shared. "He made me a much better fighter because he was one of the guys who I was thinking about every day. But he's my good friend... Now that I really decided to do the transition, I talk to him a lot. I really want to get together with him and get some training sessions together."
Buchecha's debut is up in the air due to the COVID-19 pandemic: "I'm shooting for the end of this year and the beginning of 2021."
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