Reug Reug outlasts Marcus Buchecha in three-round war at ONE Championship

It took nearly three years, but Reug Reug finally defeated Marcus Buchecha.

For the past few years, Reug Reug and Buchecha were supposed to face each other inside ONE Championship, but in each instance, the fates intervened to prevent the matchup from taking place. Finally, on Friday, the two heavyweight stars collided in a featured bout at ONE Championship Fight Night 13 in Bangkok, and after 15 minutes of back-and-forth battling — and plenty of fouling — Reug Reug ultimately took home a hard-fought unanimous decision win.

In the opening round, Reug Reug came out strong, stuffing the takedown attempts of the 15-time BJJ world champion and delivering devastating punches on the feet. Buchecha was able to weather the storm though and make it to the end of the round, but he was noticeably tired and beaten up.

Fortunately for the Brazilian, Reug Reug was also exhausted and Buchecha quickly scored a takedown on the Senegalese wrestler in the second round, where he start to advance position. After moving to mount though, Reug Reug simply stood up, and when Buchecha attempted to attack an armbar in response, Reug Reug defended and made it out, winding up on top of Buchecha shortly afterward, spending the remainder of the round there.

In the third round, things got wild as both Reug Reug and Buchecha were visibly exhausted, and as such, things got even sloppier. First, referee Herb Dean warned both fights for inactivity to start the round. Then, after Reug Reug again wound up on top of Buchecha following a collision, he had the position taken away from him after grabbing the gloves. This came after Dean warned Reug Reug for multiple grabs of the shorts, leading Dean to threaten to disqualify Reug Reug if he didn’t get his act together.

With short time and knowing he was behind in the fight, Buchecha took the restart as an opportunity to finish the fight, calling on a second wind to immediately start brawling with Reug Reug, with the two exchanging wild haymakers until Buchecha scored a takedown. Reug Reug then fouled yet again, grabbing Buchecha’s shorts a few moments later causing Dean to intervene and hand out a yellow card. It was ultimately much ado about nothing though as there wasn’t much time left in the fight, and Reug Reug was able to cruise to a unanimous decision win.

The win moves Reug Reug to 6-1 in his MMA career and could set him up for a fight with ONE heavyweight champion Anatoly Malykhin.

Check out video highlights of some of the action from the insane heavyweight matchup below.