ONE Fight Night 13: Marcus ‘Buchecha’ Almeida gets first MMA loss

Senegalese wrestler turned MMA fighter Oumar ‘Reug Reug’ Kane gets the decision win over IBJFF Hall of Famer and 17-time Brazilian Jiu Jitsu World Champion, Marcus ‘Buchecha’ Almeida at ONE Fight Night 13.

MMA contenders Almeida and Kane have been aiming to have a fight against each other since Almeida first signed with ONE and now the fight is over, Almeida’s perfect MMA record has unfortunately suffered its first loss, with his record being changed to 4-1-0.

Despite talking about transitioning to mixed martial arts since 2015, news arised in 2020, that Almeida had signed a multi-year contract with ONE Championship. Almeida was set to make his MMA debut in 2020, but due to injuries, had to pull out until 2021, where he faced Anderson Silva and won via north-south choke.

The two heavyweights were originally scheduled to face one another in 2021 and then in 2022, but injuries prevented the highly anticipated fight from happening.

The two heavyweights went the distance and fought for three exhausting MMA rounds that saw multiple takedowns take place as well as a back and forth on positional exchanges.

Even though he took the decision win, Reug Reug was penalized with a yellow card due to repeated attempts to grab the inside of Buchecha’s gloves and shorts. With forty-five seconds left, the bout resumed. 

In the end, the Senegalese wrestler walked away with a unanimous decision victory and a $50,000 performance bonus while also giving the undefeated BJJ superstar his first MMA career defeat.

Also on ONE Fight Night 13: Tye Ruotolo RNC’d Turkish MMA fighter Dagi Arslanaliev, after tapping him with a heel hook (that didn’t get seen by the ref), ultimately winning via submission twice-over in the same match. Meanwhile, Mikey Musumeci submitted One MMA Strawweight Champion, Jarred Brooks via triangle choke.