Topline
Mark Zuckerberg appears to be training with UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya and UFC featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski, according to a Twitter post from Adesanya—weeks after the Meta CEO agreed to a “cage match” with Elon Musk.
UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya and UFC featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski pose … [+]
Key Facts
Photos posted to Twitter by Adesanya show him, Volkanovski and a lean-looking Zuckerberg posing at a training session, accompanied by a caption from Adesanya saying: “This is Serious Business.”
Zuckerberg’s potential fight with Musk has been teased for weeks, with UFC president Dana White telling the New York Times recently he would help produce an exhibition event between the tech CEOs and that “They both want to do it.”
Musk’s preparation for a fight has also been publicly documented, as photos of him training with computer scientist and Brazilian Jiu-jitsu black belt Lex Fridman surfaced a few weeks ago.
Tangent
It is unclear if a fight between Zuckerberg and Musk will happen, but tensions have continued between the two executives as their companies compete to dominate the social media marketplace. On Monday, Musk posted two tweets in which he called Zuckerberg a “cuck” and pitched a “literal dick measuring contest,” with the Meta CEO. The tweets were posted the same day it was announced that Meta’s Threads, Twitter’s new rival platform, reached 100 million users. Musk accused Meta last week of misusing Twitter’s “trade secrets and other intellectual property” and poaching former Twitter employees to develop a “copycat” app.
Key Background
Zuckerberg’s elite company, Adesanya and Volkanovski, are among the UFC’s best fighters. Adesanya recaptured his champion title in April and is the No. 5 pound-for-pound fighter in the UFC. Volkanovski, who is fresh off a dominant win at UFC 290 on Saturday, is the promotion’s No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter. Although both champions train with different teams, the two are good friends who have routinely supported each other during their respective fights. Zuckerberg’s training with Volkanovski is not the first time the two have interacted. In February, the Meta CEO posted a video that showed him and Volkanovski sparring together in the Metaverse. Zuckerberg has a vested interest in mixed martial arts and attended a UFC event last October alongside his wife, Priscilla Chan.
Forbes Valuation
We estimate Zuckerberg’s net worth to be $105.7 billion—placing him at No. 7 on Forbes’ list of the world’s real-time billionaires. Musk holds the top spot on the list with an estimated net worth of $242.8 billion.
Further Reading
A ‘Cage Match’ Between Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg May Be No Joke (New York Times)
Zuckerberg-Musk Cage Fight: Meta Boss Favorite In Proposed Bout Of Billionaires (Forbes)
Musk Hits Below The Belt With Latest Zuckerberg Attacks: ‘Zuck Is A Cuck’ (Forbes)
