On record, Leandro Lo and Marcus Almeida “Buchecha” met 5 times, and Almeida won all 5. Four of those meetings were finals, the other a semi-final, so this was a rivalry that played out at the sharp end of the bracket. The catch is that none of the 5 ended in a submission. Three went to advantages and two to decision, which tells you these were tight, position-heavy matches rather than blowouts.

The styles help explain why the margins stayed thin. Lo built his career at lighter weights, moving up through the divisions as an IBJJF World champion in five different weight classes, and his finishing on record is modest at a 21% submission rate of wins with the Cross Collar Choke his most frequent finish at 15. Almeida is the bigger, more finish-oriented grappler, with a 52% submission rate of wins and 14 of those coming by Armbar. When they met, it was often in the heavier brackets, and the size and the scramble math tended to fall Almeida's way.

Both men own strong overall numbers. Lo sits at 248 wins against 43 losses and 5 draws across 296 recorded matches, an 84% win rate. Almeida is at 119 wins against 11 losses and 1 draw across 131 recorded matches, a 91% win rate. Against the same opponents the two often piled up wins, but head to head it was one-sided.