Breakdown: Buchecha’s Folding Pass

Marcus “Buchecha” Almeida is probably the greatest BJJ fighter of his generation in the gi. There isn’t much of an argument against that. He’s easily in contention for greatest of all time, to be honest. His record speaks for himself: thirteen world titles, the most ever.

(And despite his less than perfect showing in the 2019 ADCC, he’s not to shabby out of the gi either. Two gold medals in ADCC and two in Nogi Worlds are not insignificant.)

Although he fights at +99 kilos, he moves like a much lighter athlete. Indeed, one of the things that makes him so exciting to watch is his explosiveness.

He puts a pace on his opponents, darting back and forth around their guard while they struggle to gain control, and if they manage to score or almost score a sweep, he pops back on top, seemingly effortlessly. (Check out this highlight to see what we’re talking about.)

However, as this breakdown video shows, he is more than just a quick, athletic fighter. Yes he uses his explosiveness. But to complement this, he has a very technical smash style passing game. His favorite pass, which he can always find and chain attacks off of, is something called the folding pass. As you can see in the breakdown, he is very versatile with this pass, always ready to explode into more dynamic passing or backtakes if he gets the right reaction.

To see some more details on how to get to the folding pass, watch Buchecha break it down for Bernardo Faria here. If you really like the folding pass, check out Buchecha’s instructional with BJJ Fanatics here.