ONE Championship: Marcus ‘Buchecha’ Almeida Has No Animosity Towards Kirill Grishenko Ahead of the Heavyweight Clash at ONE on Prime ONE 1

ONE Championship star Marcus “Buchecha” Almeida is ready to keep his MMA journey on its perfect track by scoring his fourth consecutive victory inside the Circle against Kirill Grishenko at ONE on Prime Video 1: Moraes vs. Johnson II.

So much so that the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu icon seems to have a little spare time to engage in a couple of mind games with the Belarusian star ahead of their heavyweight bout on August 26.

In a recent interview with ONE, former World Title challenger Grishenko warned Almeida that he will have no issues handing him his first career defeat.

But “Buchecha” believes the plot might favor him.

“Kirill signed the contract, and that’s his intention, right? But mine is no different, either. I want to beat him in the best way, as happened in my previous fights, making him give up,” the 32-year-old said.

“So, I think it’s normal for him to say he wants to stop me. It would be strange if he didn’t want to. But what he wants, I want twice. Come on. It’s going to be a good fight.”

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The 17-time Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu World Champion has been on a roll at the Singapore-based promotion, earning three first-round victories on the trot.

In his most recent outing, the American Top Team and Evolve MMA star picked up a TKO win against Australia’s Simon Carson on the lead card of ONE 158.

ONE Championship: Marcus Almeida believes a first-round finish is likely

Grishenko, meanwhile, is fired up to get his hand raised after going down to Anatoly “Sladkiy” Malykhin when they squared off for the interim heavyweight gold, which is why Almeida knows he cannot write off his opponent’s chances when the Circle door closes on Friday.

“I believe that whoever manages to impose their strategy will win this fight. Or, as there are two grapplers, it can end up being a striking fight. We’ll see how the fight goes, but I’m prepared for anything,” he added.

If everything goes the way he plans, though, “Buchecha” doesn’t see any way Grishenko will get past his grappling prowess in the opening round.

Two opponents have already gone down to the Brazilian’s astounding ground game, and he believes the MGC and M2G athlete will be next to add to his list.

“In a perfect world, I win with a submission in the first round, like all my fights so far. That’s the goal, and that would be the perfect result,” “Buchecha” warned.

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