Brazilian jiu-jitsu legend Marcus Almeida needs a new opponent for his MMA debut.
ONE Championship recently announced a heavyweight clash between “Buchecha” and Ji Won Kang for the ONE on TNT 2 show, scheduled to air on April 14, but “Mighty Warrior” has withdrawn from the matchup due to undisclosed reasons, multiple people with knowledge of the news told MMA Fighting.
ONE on TNT 2 will take place at the Singapore Indoor Stadium on April 7 and air a week later on TNT in the United States. The card will be headlined by a lightweight title fight between Christian Lee and Timofey Nastyukhin.
ONE announced the matchup before even airing Kang’s most recent bout, a first-round victory over Amir Aliakbari in March. Kang holds a 2-0 record under the ONE banner, 5-0 overall as a professional.
“Buchecha” made the transition to MMA after winning 13 jiu-jitsu world championships as a black belt and a pair of ADCC gold medals, defeating names like Felipe Pena, Erberth Santos, Rafael Lovato Jr., Rodolfo Vieira, Garry Tonon, Dean Lister, Andre Galvao, Kron Gracie and Gilbert Burns in grappling matches.
Almeida first trained at American Kickboxing Academy, working alongside Cain Velasquez and Daniel Cormier, before opting to train full-time at American Top Team in Florida for his first test in MMA.
