Marcus “Buchecha” Almeida may be one of the best Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu practitioners in mixed martial arts today. But he plans to incorporate even more aspects of his ground game into the all-encompassing sport.

One athlete that the 17-time BJJ World Champion hopes to emulate when it comes to utilizing grappling in the Circle is two-division ONE World Champion Reinier de Ridder.

The pair shared the mats during the unbeaten Dutchman’s recent visit to the United States, and Almeida believes that when it comes to ground game in MMA, no one does it better than “The Dutch Knight.”

“The training was really great, actually. It was amazing to train with him because he’s coming from a grappling background, and you see how he used his jiu-jitsu,” he recalled.

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“I want to use my jiu-jitsu as he used his in his fights in his career. So that was really inspiring for me and a great opportunity. It was amazing – the way that he trains. The way that he felt the game. It was great for me. Not just to train but to learn a lot with him.”

Almeida, who returns against Kirill Grishenko at ONE on Prime Video 1 on August 26 on U.S. primetime, is enjoying an unbeaten run in his MMA career so far. The 31-year-old has three first-round finishes from three outings at the Singapore-based promotion.

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Marcus ‘Buchecha’ Almeida reacts to Reinier de Ridder’s compliment

“Buchecha’s” trajectory in the heavyweight division looks promising. And his performances have already garnered respect and admiration from some of ONE’s biggest stars, including the man he recently spent time training with, Reinier de Ridder.

“I felt blessed to hear that from him because he’s one of the guys that I look up to in MMA. So when I found out that he also looks up to me, it was like, ‘Oh, my God, [I’m] really, really honored,’” Almeida offered.

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Download the ONE Super App to catch “Buchecha” on ONE on Prime Video 1. To fans residing in Singapore, they can purchase their tickets here.