Athletes
Marcus Buchecha: ‘I Felt A Lot Of Pressure’
Brazilian Superstar Opens Up About Debut Struggles Ahead Of Second UFC Appearance
Even 15-time world champions can get overwhelmed.
Marcus Buchecha is one of the most decorated Brazilian jiu jitsu practitioners of all time; a member of the IBJJF Hall of Fame and widely considered to be not only the best of his generation, but one of the greatest to ever grace the mats, period. He competed in and won just about every major competition possible in the sport, including the Worlds in both the gi and no-gi, Pan-Ams, and the ADCC World Championships.
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And yet, as he made the walk to the Octagon for the first time in July, the 35-year-old heavyweight felt himself dealing with unexpected nerves deriving from the expectations he had heaped upon himself and the belief that he needed to deliver a certain type of performance in his debut in order to properly represent Brazilian jiu jitsu on the biggest stage in mixed martial arts.
“I felt a lot of pressure,” admitted Buchecha, who dropped a unanimous decision to Martin Buday in Abu Dhabi and faces Kennedy Nzechukwu this weekend in his second foray to the Octagon. “I think that distracted me a little bit because I didn’t expect to feel the way I felt. It was hard to concentrate the way I expected.
“For sure, the UFC is something different — the pressure is unreal because it’s a dream coming true. I was living the dream, but when I got in the fight, I was a little bit off because of all that.”
There is something very real, very humanizing about hearing the Brazilian superstar speak about the weight of the expectations — both his own and those foisted upon him — he felt as he ventured in the fray for the first time in July and the conclusions he reached as he pulled apart what happened.
At some point or another, everyone has felt pressure of some kind, whether real or imagined, and been required to figure out how to contend with it. Some do it better than others, and despite his staggering list of accolades as a BJJ competitor, the UFC rookie wasn’t able to square things away for himself prior to his first appearance.
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“I was too worried about what people were gonna say if I (won), if I (lost),” Buchecha said. “I never cared about these things when it came to (my other) fights, but for the UFC, I was paying too much attention for this kind of thing. At the end of the day, it’s a lot of noise, and I don’t need to hear all this noise. Of course, I wanna do my best, wanna deliver what I train for, but at the end of the day, I can’t let other people’s opinion get in my head.
“I remember telling you, ‘I wanna carry the jiu jitsu flag. I wanna get the submission, first round,’” he added, recalling our conversation prior to that first fight. “In my head, it was too much like this; ‘I need to get the submission. I need to prove! I need to prove!’
“At the end of the day, I don’t need to prove; I need to go there and do my best.”
Lesson learned, Buchecha is ready to showcase the changes he’s made since that initial appearance when he steps in with Nzechukwu on Saturday’s main card.
“I did a lot of changes in my camp, my head has changed a lot, and I think all the changes I did were really great for me as an athlete, as a person,” began the BJJ legend. “This camp, I really enjoyed the camp. People were asking me, ‘How many weeks out?’ and to be honest, I didn’t know; I’m not counting. I was just enjoying, having a good time; people were counting the weeks for me.
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“The other fight, every time I was going to sparring, I was praying not to get hurt,” continued Buchecha. “This time, I wasn’t thinking about getting hurt. I didn’t get hurt, didn’t have any injury — everything flowed better, and that was the difference for this camp. This one, I really enjoyed, really felt the improvement of me as an athlete, as an MMA fighter.”
Where many of his fellow BJJ ex-pats have spoken at length about the struggles of adopting their approaches and skills to MMA, Buchecha acknowledged that he needed to completely alter the way he viewed himself and the situation in front of him.
“It’s not jiu jitsu, it’s MMA, and I’m fighting in the biggest event in the world, and I’m not just fighting against anyone; I’m fighting one of the best fighters in the world,” he said. “When the submission didn’t come in the first round, I felt that.
“I put so much pressure on myself that I would submit him in the first round, and that was bad for me. Now, my head is where I’m ready to go there to fight for 15 minutes if I need. I’m ready to strike for 15 minutes against a striker for 15 minutes, but if I get the submission in the first round, second round, third round, I’ll take it; it’s a bonus.
“Now I feel like an MMA fighter,” he added with a smile. “Jiu jitsu is always going to be my biggest weapon, but the main thing is I’m not going to get into the Octagon in rush to get out of there.”
Having come up short in his debut and been forced to make considerable changes to both his mindset and his approach in the gym, Buchecha is relishing this opportunity to compete for a second time before the end of the UFC’s 2025 campaign and heads into the weekend with designs on setting the foundation for a successful run in the promotion on Saturday.
“That’s gonna be really good; that’s what I trained for,” he said with a smile when asked about ending the year with a win. “I’m gonna go there, do my best, and hopefully get a victory, pave the way for a good UFC journey.
“I’m just focused on Kennedy — I cannot think ahead of that — but one thing I can say is I want 2026 to be really active,” he added, looking ahead to next year and beyond. “If I’m able to do three, four fights, that’s my goal.
“I have more time behind me (than I have in front of me) as an athlete, so I wanna enjoy my time.”
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