Grappling Report: ‘Buchecha’ gets another change of opponent for MMA debut

A rundown of the biggest headlines and news from the world of competitive grappling. It’s been a long and frustrating road to a successful MMA debut for the most successful IBJJF world champion in history. Marcus ‘Buchecha’ Alme…


bloody elbow grappling report

A rundown of the biggest headlines and news from the world of competitive grappling.

It’s been a long and frustrating road to a successful MMA debut for the most successful IBJJF world champion in history. Marcus ‘Buchecha’ Almeida has won a record thirteen world championships in BJJ but has been struggling to make it to the cage for over a year now. It all started back in July of 2020 when he first signed for ONE FC and was expected to start his MMA career by the end of the year.

Since then he’s been sidelined for months due to injury and has had later opponents pull out for similar reasons. As a result, fans took the most recent attempt at booking his debut with a pinch of salt and were unsurprised when his opponent, Thomas Narmo, withdrew from the bout. ‘Buchecha’ will stay on the card for September 24th however and will now fight Glory Heavyweight contender Anderson ‘Braddock’ Silva instead.

Fellipe Andrew wins double gold at IBJJF Pan-ams

The 2021 edition of the IBJJF Pan-ams marked a return to normality after last year’s edition went on without a number of high-profile competitors who were unable to attend due to travel restrictions. There were a number of highlights in the adult black belt divisions, with a new crowd of champions being crowned and some of them earning the honor for the very first time.

Undoubtedly the best performance of the week came from Fellipe Andrew, who not only managed to win gold at Heavyweight but also in the absolute division. Elsewhere, the biggest story of the weekend came in the Middleweight division where ATOS’ Ronaldo Junior was one of the favorites to win until he attempted a matrix back-take against Tainan Dalpra and blew his knee out.

Full results for the event can be found here.

Main card for Polaris 17 starts to take shape

It’s welcome news for fans of traditional superfight events as Polaris has returned to this format after three phenomenal team-grappling events. The biggest announcement was undoubtedly the main event, which will see the Australian phenom and Polaris double champion Craig Jones defending his Middleweight title against ADCC world champion and current UFC competitor Davi Ramos.

Alongside this, Danaher Death Squad black belt Robert Degle will be taking on European leglock expert Kamil Wilk and two previous Polaris Squads competitors will be facing off for the very first time, Ellis Younger and Mateusz Szczecinski. An exciting preliminary match has also been scheduled between a pair of colored belts both training under Polaris fan-favorites Ross Nicholls and Lloyd Cooper, Jack Sear and Ollie Bates respectively.

Baret Yoshida hits a beautiful finish at Fight 2 Win 183

F2W 183 was one of the most stacked events put on by the promotion in recent memory, as IBJJF Pan-ams champions Fellipe Andrew and Lucas Pinheiro both registered submission victories well before the main event. Shortly after, Gabriel Almeida shut down ATOS’ Dom Bell to win a decision and 10th Planet’s Corey Guitard wasn’t able to get his game going in a losing effort against Josh Hinger.

The final two fights of the night were both title fights, starting with a back-and-forth leglock battle between Michael Liera Jr and Jackson Nagai. Nagai had plenty of good moments but in the end, Liera Jr won the decision thanks to his relentless pace. BJJ legend Baret Yoshida was up next and he made short work of Bernardo Pitel by locking up an Anaconda Choke, taking home the promotion’s Featherweight gi title in the process.

Full results for the event can be found here.

Quick Hits

Technique Corner

Knee-slice pass to taking the back, to Rear-naked Choke

Kimura roll from Half-guard to North-south choke

The Shin-drag