Kade Ruotolo defeated Russian Uali Kurzhev to claim the ONE Lightweight Submission Grappling World Title at ONE on Prime Video 3 last Friday, October 21, adding another intense chapter in the rivalry between the two grappling-based martial arts.

That Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and sambo rivalry began years ago, when former UFC champion Khabib Nurmagomedov – a Combat Sambo World Champion – famously sported a shirt that read “If sambo was easy it would be called jiu-jitsu.”

According to Marcus “Buchecha” Almeida, that shirt was nothing more than a cheeky way to build up a fight.

Marcus Almeida thought Khabib’s words were a form of promotion

“I think Khabib said that as a form of promotion. At the time he wore this shirt, he was going to face a jiu-jitsu black belt, Thiago Tavares. It’s been a long time, and he wore the shirt just to get attention. And it worked. A lot of people talked about it,” the multiple-time BJJ World Champion said.

Indeed, people are still talking about it, even after Ruotolo’s submission win over sambo’s Kurzhev.

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But Almeida says that, despite that infamous t-shirt, Nurmagomedov respects jiu-jitsu and trained in it frequently throughout his undefeated MMA career.

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 “It was a marketing ploy because Khabib trains that half-guard control a lot by playing on top, crushing the opponent’s legs. And that was the result of a lot of jiu-jitsu training. I followed him training with Leandro Vieira, who was the American Kickboxing Academy jiu-jitsu coach at the time,” he pointed out.

Marcus Almeida revealed that Khabib himself trains jiu-jitsu

“I saw him teaching Khabib a lot of jiu-jitsu. Leandro is the brother of my master Leonardo Vieira, so I followed Khabib’s jiu-jitsu training very closely. Like I said, it was just a marketing ploy and it worked at the time. But the truth is that Khabib trains a lot of jiu-jitsu and used jiu-jitsu a lot in his fights.” 

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 Marketing ploy or not, it comes as no surprise that “Buchecha” thoroughly believes in the power of BJJ to overcome sambo. 

 “I think jiu-jitsu is more efficient than sambo. Not only is it more efficient than sambo, jiu-jitsu is more efficient than any other martial art. Sambo has a lot of focus on leg locks and jiu-notes covers everything, chokes, arm locks, leg locks, back control, mounts.”