Marcus Almeida

Marcus Vinícius Oliveira de Almeida, universally known as “Buchecha,” is a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt under Rodrigo Cavaca and one of the most decorated competitors in the sport’s history. Born on January 8, 1990, in São Paulo state, he grew up around the Santos / São Vicente coast and first imagined himself in football or surfing rather than combat sports. Jiu-jitsu entered his life through family: his sister started training, his protective father Cleiton accompanied her to the academy, and Marcus soon followed. Cavaca gave him the nickname Buchecha—Portuguese for cheek or chubby cheeks—because he was an overweight kid when he arrived on the mat.

Under Cavaca at Checkmat, Almeida developed into a rare heavyweight: enormous and powerful, but mobile enough to wrestle, invert, scramble, and attack submissions from positions that smaller athletes usually owned. His lower-belt rise included titles at the Brasileiro, Pan, São Paulo Cup, Scandinavian Open, and World Championship level. After receiving his black belt on the podium following his 2010 World No-Gi success, he moved to the United States with Cavaca and teammate Thiago “Baiano” Aragão, then quickly proved he could win at black belt by taking IBJJF World No-Gi gold and establishing himself among the elite.

The 2012 season made Buchecha the face of a new heavyweight era. He won the IBJJF Pan Championship and World Championship in both his weight class and the absolute division, beat names such as Rodolfo Vieira, Bernardo Faria, Kron Gracie, and André Galvão in major brackets, and fought Roger Gracie to a famous 20-minute submission-only draw at Metamoris 1. From there he built a record-setting Mundial run: double gold in 2012, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2017, and 2019, plus ultra-heavyweight gold in 2018, for 13 black-belt IBJJF World titles overall. His six absolute World titles broke Roger Gracie’s previous open-weight record and made him the all-time leader in black-belt World Championship gold medals.

A serious knee injury at the 2015 Worlds could have ended that chase. Almeida tore major ligaments against Ricardo Evangelista, missed ADCC 2015, and rushed a difficult rehabilitation so he could return to the Pyramid in 2016. The comeback became one of his defining chapters: he won ultra-heavyweight and absolute gold in 2016, then added another double-gold season in 2017 and his second ADCC +99 kg title the same year. His rivalry map touches nearly every major heavyweight of the decade—Rodolfo Vieira, Leandro Lo, Felipe Pena, Roberto “Cyborg” Abreu, Gordon Ryan, Kaynan Duarte, and Roger Gracie, who submitted him in their 2017 Gracie Pro rematch before retiring from jiu-jitsu.

After conquering gi and no-gi grappling, Almeida shifted to mixed martial arts. He signed with ONE Championship in 2020, debuted in 2021, and went 5–1 in the promotion with all five wins finished in the first round, including submissions of Anderson Silva, Kang Ji Won, Kirill Grishenko, and Amir Aliakbari. Once his ONE contract ended, he entered free agency and signed with the UFC in 2025, continuing his heavyweight MMA development at American Top Team. His competitive identity remains rooted in the same grappling traits that made him historic: double-leg entries, pressure from top, dangerous toe holds and heel hooks, and a relentless back-taking/submission game for an athlete of his size.