Tech billionaire Mark Zuckerberg has confirmed he is extra than simply speak in terms of preventing, at the least within the fitness center. The Mehta CEO lately took to the mat with UFC gentle heavyweight champion Alex Pereira on the Cruz Combined Martial Arts Academy in Nutley, New Jersey, and the footage rapidly went viral on social media.
Video: Mark Zuckerberg Spurs with UFC Champion Alex Pereira
The coaching session, held at a facility run by Pereira’s longtime coach Plinio Cruz, got here on the heels of Pereira’s comeback efficiency at UFC 320 on Oct. 4. Simply weeks after dropping the title to Magomed Ankalaev by unanimous resolution at UFC 313 in March, Pereira regained the sunshine heavyweight championship with a devastating first-round technical knockout. He wasted no time getting again to work, which in some way included welcoming the 41-year-old tech mogul into the Octagon.
What makes this encounter significantly attention-grabbing isn’t just that Zuckerberg confirmed as much as apply with one of the vital harmful strikers in skilled fight as we speak. It is that he clearly had his personal. The video reveals Pereira and Zuckerberg exchanging strategies, with the meta founder efficiently attaining a takedown towards the reigning champion. Contemplating the bodily variations between the 2, that is no small feat. For a person whose public persona screams in Silicon Valley boardrooms, Zuckerberg has proven true technical consciousness and a willingness to get uncomfortable on the mat.
Zuckerberg’s journey into martial arts started in the course of the pandemic, and in contrast to his tech rival Elon Musk, who sporadically talks about preventing, the Fb co-founder has taken martial arts significantly. He started coaching in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in the summertime of 2022 with legendary coach Dave Camarillo at Guerrilla Jiu-Jitsu in San Jose, California. Inside 5 minutes of taking his top notch, Zuckerberg was hooked. “The place has my life been?” grew to become his interior monologue, and it appears it has caught.
By Could 2023, only a 12 months after he started coaching, social media mogul Zuckerberg was competing in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu tournaments underneath the pseudonym “Mark Elliott” to keep up his anonymity, however the disguise fell as quickly as officers known as out his title. He completed his first competitors by profitable gold and silver medals within the Masters 3 white belt division. His coach was additionally not shy in praising him. Dave Camarillo known as him “top-of-the-line college students I’ve ever had,” and people phrases carry reliable weight from the person who skilled Cain Velasquez, Jon Fitch, and Josh Koscheck.
The billionaire earned his Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu blue belt in 2023 and has since skilled with a number of elite fighters, together with Kai Wu. He has fought a number of IBJJF and ADCC champion Mikey Moussi, grappled with UFC featherweight Alexander Volkanovski, and even sparred with the fighter in digital actuality. UFC President Dana White known as Zuckerberg “superior” about the potential of becoming a member of the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu group underneath the UFC banner.
Pereira, then again, can be driving excessive into this apply. The 38-year-old Brazilian grew to become the primary fighter to concurrently maintain championship titles in each the UFC’s middleweight and lightweight heavyweight divisions. Earlier than his MMA profession started, he was a two-time kickboxing champion in each the middleweight and lightweight heavyweight classes, making him the one fighter to attain dual-division champion standing in each sports activities. His left hook is the stuff of legend. That is the weapon that knocked out fighters like Jiri Prochaska, Sean Strickland, and Jamahal Hill throughout his UFC profession.
