Home/UFC

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. Further adding another intense chapter in the rivalry between the two grappling-based martial arts. 

 

ADVERTISEMENT

Article continues below this ad

Khabib Nurmagomedov’s marketing stunt worked according to Marcus Almeida

The Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and Sambo rivalry began years ago. It all started when the 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.

READ MORE: “I Will Help Him To Retire” – Shamil Gasanov Vows To Put an End to Garry Tonon’s Career After American Disses Him Following Debut Win

“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. 

Buchecha believes Jiu-Jitsu is far superior to Sambo

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

ADVERTISEMENT

Article continues below this ad

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.

“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.” 

READ MORE: Newly Crowned ONE World Champion Jonathan Di Bella Issues a Challenge to DJ

ADVERTISEMENT

Article continues below this ad

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-jitsu covers everything, chokes, arm locks, leg locks, back control, mounts.”