Marcus 'Buchecha' Almeida: The Most Decorated Heavyweight in IBJJF History

Quick answer: Marcus "Buchecha" Almeida is the most decorated competitor in IBJJF world championship history, a Checkmat heavyweight who dominated the black belt division for most of the 2010s and eventually surpassed Roger Gracie's record for world titles. He paired freakish athleticism with a relentless pace that heavyweights simply weren't supposed to have. In 2021 he left the gi behind for MMA, signing with ONE Championship and starting a second career in his thirties.

Ask a room full of black belts who the greatest gi competitor of all time is and you'll start an argument — Roger, Marcelo, Buchecha. Ask who won the most, and the argument gets shorter.

Marcus Almeida's trophy case settled that question years ago. Here's the honest version of how he built it.

The kid they called Buchecha

Almeida grew up in São Paulo state, Brazil, and got the nickname "Buchecha" — a play on the Portuguese for "cheeks" — as a chubby-faced kid. It stuck long after the baby fat didn't.

He came up under Rodrigo Cavaca and competed for Checkmat, the team he'd represent for his entire gi career. What set him apart early wasn't size — plenty of heavyweights are big. It was that he moved like a lightweight: flying triangles, cartwheel passes, scrambles that made 220-pound men look like featherweights.

Arriving in the deep end

Buchecha reached black belt at the start of the 2010s and was contending at the Mundials almost immediately. That timing mattered, because the man standing at the top of the division was Rodolfo Vieira — a generational passer having a generational run.

Their matches, including a famous 2011 Worlds absolute final that Vieira won, are still worth watching. It was pressure against motion, two very different answers to the same sport. Buchecha lost some of those early battles, then spent the next several years making sure nobody forgot who won the war.

The run

From 2012 onward, Buchecha's dominance at the IBJJF World Championship was close to total. A few things defined it:

• He kept winning double gold. Taking your weight class and the open-weight absolute division at the same Worlds is the sport's hardest double, and Buchecha did it repeatedly.

• He broke the record everyone thought was safe. Roger Gracie's haul of world titles looked untouchable; Buchecha eventually passed it, which is why "most decorated" is his phrase now.

• He did it through injuries. Serious knee injuries — including ACL surgery — interrupted his career more than once, and he kept coming back to the top of the podium.

If you're still learning why titles at black belt carry so much weight, the short version is that the Worlds is the deepest, hardest bracket in gi jiu-jitsu. Winning it once makes a career. Buchecha made it a habit.

The Roger question

The one heavyweight comparison that never went away was Roger Gracie, and in 2017 the two finally met in a superfight in Rio. Roger, semi-retired from grappling, came back and won by choke from the mount — vintage Roger, and by his own account his final gi match.

The honest read: it was a genuinely great win for Roger and it didn't erase what the record book says. Roger's case for greatest ever rests on how he won. Buchecha's rests on how much. Both cases are real, and reasonable people split on it.

What made his game work

Buchecha wasn't a system player in the modern sense. His game was built on a few unglamorous advantages:

• Pace that heavyweights couldn't match. He pushed a scramble-heavy tempo for ten minutes, and most big men broke somewhere around minute six.

• Takedowns and top pressure when he needed points, guard work and sweeps when he didn't. He was dangerous from literally everywhere, which made game-planning against him miserable.

• Durability and nerve. He competed hurt, competed as the favorite for nearly a decade, and rarely looked bothered by either.

There's a lesson in that for regular training: athleticism ages, but pace, pressure, and composure are trainable. His matches are a better study in top position fundamentals than in highlight-reel technique.

The move to MMA

In 2021, with nothing left to prove in the gi, Buchecha signed with ONE Championship and moved to MMA as a heavyweight. He was in his early thirties — late for a debut, but not unheard of for elite grapplers.

The start was about what you'd expect from a world-class submission artist facing regional-level heavyweights: quick takedowns, quick finishes, several first-round submissions. He eventually ran into tougher tests and took his first career loss, which is the normal shape of an MMA career rather than a scandal. The honest assessment as of mid-2025: a successful transition, not a dominant one — MMA has a way of humbling everyone.

The takeaway

Buchecha's legacy is straightforward: the winningest competitor the IBJJF Worlds has ever seen, the man who broke Roger's record, and proof that a heavyweight can play the sport with the speed and creativity of a small man. He lost early to Rodolfo, lost the superfight to Roger, tore his knee more than once — and none of it dented the record, because he kept showing up and kept winning.

Greatest ever is a debate. Most decorated isn't.

Train where the next Buchecha is training

Every champion started as a nervous white belt at a local academy — Buchecha included. If his story has you itching to get on the mats, find a BJJ gym near you on Let's Roll → and take the first class.

FAQ

How many world titles does Buchecha have? He holds the record for the most IBJJF world championships in history, a total he built across his weight class and the absolute division through the 2010s. The exact count depends on how you tally weight and absolute golds, which is why "most decorated ever" is the cleanest way to say it. Nobody else is close among heavyweights.

Did Buchecha ever fight Roger Gracie? Yes, once — a 2017 gi superfight in Rio de Janeiro. Roger came out of semi-retirement and won by choke from mount in what he described as his final gi match. It remains one of the most-watched matches in the sport's history.

Why did Buchecha leave jiu-jitsu for MMA? By 2021 he had broken the world-title record and had little left to prove in the gi, and MMA offered a new challenge and better money. He signed with ONE Championship and debuted as a heavyweight, winning his early fights mostly by submission.

What team did Buchecha represent? He spent his entire gi career with Checkmat, coming up under coach Rodrigo Cavaca in Brazil before later moving to California. He remains the team's most decorated competitor by a wide margin.