The name Marcus Almeida is a well-reputed one to the viewers of ONE Championship. The American competes in the Heavyweight Division of ONE and possesses an unmatchable ground game. ‘Buchecha’ had his last outing against the Belarusian, Kirill Grishenko, on August 26, 2022, where he secured a victory over his opponent through a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu style heel hook submission.

The year 2022 has been an enthralling one for ONE Championship fans. It showcased the championship changing hands and a lot of exciting bouts throughout the year. ‘Buchecha’ also must have had a lot of memorable 2022 moments. Recently, in an interview with ONE Championship, Almeida revealed the three ONE Championship fighters who had impressed him most with their skills in the year gone by.

Which fighters made it to the top 3 list of Kirill Grishenko?

The previous year saw ONE Championship collaborating with the e-commerce giant, Amazon, for their events to be broadcasted on Amazon Prime Video. This step saw a massive boost in the popularity of ONE Championship in ‘Buchecha’s’ native continent.

Almeida revealed his choices for top 3 ONE Championship fighters for the year 2022, stating, “Fabrício Andrade, who came on an incredible rise, Anatoly, who always has a great performance when he fights, and Adriano Moraes, who had two fights and had good performances.” Most viewers would probably like to agree with ‘Buchecha’ in this regard.

He concluded, stating, “I think those were the fighters that impressed me the most this year”.

Fabricio ‘Wonder Boy’ Andrade is all set to settle the scores with his former rival, John ‘Hands of Stone’ Lineker at ONE on Prime Video 7 scheduled for February 10, 2023. Their last meeting on ONE on Prime Video 3 had ended in a no contest. Hence, this time we may expect both fighters coming guns blazing to claim the vacant One Bantamweight World title.

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On the other hand, ‘Mikinho’ Adriano Moraes currently stands at 1-1 against the ONE Flyweight Champion, Demetrious ‘Mighty Mouse’ Johnson. Moraeshad got the better of Johnson on their first outing. But, ‘Mighty Mouse’ drew things level in their second bout, finishing him off and reclaiming the title from him. The duo has their eyes locked on the trilogy fight now. Their showdown has been scheduled for the first-ever ONE event on US soil, ONE on Prime Video 10.

Marcus Almeida revealed that it was the toughest to hold the apex spot

ONE Championship has always been known for its super competitive divisions. Marcus Almeida bore testimony to this fact in his interview with ONE Championship. The 32-year-old talked about how it is tough to achieve the top spot of a division in ONE Championship. But, he also implied that it is even tougher to hold on to that apex spot.

‘Buchecha’ stated, “To get the belt of course is really hard, but the hardest thing is to keep there on the top, in any sport, not just MMA, so that’s how I see it. To get there of course, is gonna be a lot of work, but once you get there, to keep and maintain motivated to train to go fight, defend it, is I think the real hardest part of everything.”

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However, ONE fans haven’t heard of any future fixtures for the Russian two-weight division champion, Anatoly Malykhin. But, looking at his tremendous 2022, it’s obvious that ONE Championship authorities will bring him back into action soon.

With ONE Championship viewers witnessing multiple changes of champions in 2022, a lot may support Almeida’s words. In an organization with ‘cut-throat’ competition like ONE, every champion must work harder each day to continue being the champion.