We are currently in a time where we get to experience some of the best jiu-jitsu in history, but sometimes you have to play the classics.

In this article I am going to resurface three classic matches that every jiu-jitsu practitioner should watch in their lifetime. That doesn't mean that this is the definitive list of the three best classic matches of all time, more-so just three classic matches out of the hundreds of options that a person should see.

Roger Gracie vs Marcus 'Buchecha' Almeida

Let's kick things off with one of the most notorious matches in jiu-jitsu history: Roger Gracie vs Marcus 'Buchecha' Almeida. Roger vs Bucheca is obviously an all-time matchup. Two absolute titans of the jiu-jitsu world whose reigns at the top of the sport never quite overlapped. To put the reigns of each athlete in perspective, Roger Gracie won his 9th and 10th IBJJF World Championships in 2010 when he took home gold in his weight class and absolute division. Roger then announced his retirement from BJJ competition and this would be the final year he competed at the IBJJF World Championship. That same year, Buchecha also took home double-gold, but in the brown belt division and was then promoted to black belt on the podium.

In rather poetic fashion, we saw one legend of the sport leave his belt on the mat and a young, hungry future hall-of-famer finally reach the black belt rank to start his professional career at the highest level. As Roger dove deeper into an MMA career, Buchecha came back to the IBJJF World Championship in 2011 and took home a silver in his weight class and bronze in the absolute of his rookie year at black belt. He then came back and secured double gold in the pyramid in 2012. This led to Roger and Buchecha's first match, which took place on Metamoris. This match ultimately ended in a draw and left the fans only wanting more. It took five years for the next bout between them to finally go down. This match went down on the 2017 Gracie Pro, which was ultimately built around this all-time matchup. So without further ado, here's the match:

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Felipe Pena vs Nicholas Meregali | 2018 IBJJF World Championship

The next classic match I want to dive into takes place at the 2018 IBJJF World Championship. This one might not have had all of the same buildup and hype as Roger vs Buchecha, but it is certainly a classic nonetheless.

In 2018, we saw Nicholas Meregali and Felipe Pena face-off in the quarterfinals of the absolute divison. This was Meregali's second year competing in the pyramid as a black belt, having won double gold at brown belt in 2016, got promoted, and then won his first black belt world championship in 2017 in the heavyweight division.

Felipe Pena had been competing at the black belt level for a bit longer than Meregali, having received his black belt in 2012 and then won his first IBJJF World Championship in 2014, which was later stripped by USADA. But, in 2018 the two met for the first time at blackbelts in the Walter Pyramid.

This match led to a ferocious Meregali fighting with everything he had to unwind the intricate guard of Pena as it stole the attention of everyone in attendance. Here is the match:

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Leandro Lo vs Dillon Danis | 2016 Copa Podio Lightweight Grand Prix

In our final feature match for this article, we have to take things to the 2016 Copa Podio Lightweight Grand Prix. And if you know much about 2016 Copa Podio, then you probably know that this is going to be a Leandro Lo match.

There are a ton of classic matches from Leandro's Copa Podio Triple Crown run to choose from, but for this article I am going with his match against Dillon Danis in the 2016 Copa Podio Lightweight Grand Prix semi-final. This might not be the craziest Leandro match, but it just feels like a match that everyone should watch at some point. Danis obviously went on to become a social media star, and Leandro will go down as one of the greatest competitor's to ever grace the mats.

Leandro would also go on to win the lightweight grand prix before then moving up to win both the Copa Podia middleweight and heavyweight grand prix's in the same year, a feat that took someone larger than life itself like Leandro to pull off. So here is Leandro Lo vs Dillon Danis at the 2016 Copa Podio Lightweight Grand Prix:

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There you have it, three classic jiu-jitsu matches that every jiu-jitsu practitioner should watch at least once in their life. I am going to try and make this a weekly article to keep shining light on some of the classic matches that helped the sport grow to the place it is at now. Do you have a match that you think deserves to be featured in the next edition of this article? Message me on Instagram at @ogtreyrobinson and let me know what you would like to see next. Until then, I am going to go dust off the VHS player and watch some more of these classic matches.

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