Marcus Almeida Knew What His Path to Victory Was at ONE: Revolution

Marcus Almeida’s resume in Brazilian jiu-jitsu is longer that your arm, so it was no surprise to see him take things to the ground in his MMA debut at ONE Championship’s Revolution on Friday.

Almeida was up against Anderson Silva (not that one), a dangerous kickboxer stepping in to replace heavyweight Thomas Narmo at the last minute. The fight ended in the opening round care of a North-South choke.

“I think it was a perfect night for me. Got the submission, could use my jiu-jitsu, I’m very happy right now,” Almeida said following the fight, speaking to media outlets including Cageside Press in a post-fight press scrum.

Almeida might have made it look easy, but no doubt there was more to it than that. “I’m not saying it was easy, but I think the game plan worked really well,” Almeida explained. “I knew if I strike against Anderson, it would be really bad for me, because he’s a legend in kickboxing, and I was trying to avoid his best game, and trying to put my best game [to work], so that’s exactly what I did. But I knew if I couldn’t take him down, I easily could have got a lot of damage.”

Almeida also knew that the complexion of the entire fight could change with just one punch. “That’s why I was so careful with the distance.”

“Being honest, of course I’m training a lot, my boxing is getting much better,” Almeida added later. “My game has been evolving so much. Of course, if I say the fight wouldn’t be different if I strike against him, the fight would be the same thing, I would be lying. Because Anderson is a legend of kickboxing. I knew if I strike with him, the fight would end in a very different way, because he’s much better than me in the striking. I knew that, so that’s why I avoided the striking game against him.”

But, Almeida added, “my striking is improving, for sure.” And he’s hoping to get back inside the ONE cage soon. “Yeah, for sure. December 5, I know it’s a big one coming up [ONE X], so I want to be part of that. Let’s do it.”

Watch the full ONE: Revolution post-fight media scrum with Marcus Almeida above. More coverage from the event can be found below.