Marcus Almeida is ready to get fast-tracked to a title.
Almeida (3-0), a multiple-time jiu-jitsu world champion and ADCC gold medalist, is just three fights into his professional MMA career. All three have been finishes, most recently tearing right through Simon Carson in June.
“Buchecha” meets Kirill Grishenko (5-1) on Friday at ONE on Prime Video 1, which takes place at Singapore Indoor Stadium in Singapore. The main card streams on Amazon Prime Video at 10 p.m. ET.
“Everything I do in my life, I want to put my 100 percent, so MMA is not different, so I’m training for that,” Almeida told MMA Junkie Radio. “Of course, I want to get to the top, I want to be the champion one day, but to be honest, I don’t want to wait that long. Years sounds like a lot of time, so I’m putting a lot of work to reach there before those years that you’re saying.”
All three of Almeida’s finishes have come in the first round. While he sees the value in going the distance for some experience, he has no intentions of going past the first against Grishenko.
“I see my game is getting a lot better,” Almeida said. “I’m feeling way more confident in the cage, so when the door closes, I’m not the kind of guy that wants to leave as soon as possible. So if I have to be there for three rounds, I’m ready to do it, but if I’m saying I want to fight three rounds, I’m lying. I want to finish as soon as possible if I have the opportunity, so if I get the job done in the first round, that is like mission accomplished for me.”
