Reigning UFC featherweight titleholder Alex Volkanovski will face the second-biggest challenge of his MMA career when he battles current UFC lightweight champion Islam Makhachev atop the UFC 284 pay-per-view (PPV) event this Sat. night (Feb. 11, 2023) at RAC Arena in Perth, Western Australia.
His biggest challenge to date? Meta creep Mark Zuckerberg.
Volkanovski would smash and trash Zuck in a real fight, that’s not really up for debate, but “The Great” is a full-time killer and had to find a way to make the Facebook founder look competent while sparring. That job is almost as difficult as the editor tasked with making my word vomit palatable for publication.
Hats off to the unsung heroes of our industry.
Not surprisingly, the UFC social media channel and some of the promotion’s biggest names were gushing in the comments section of Zuck’s Instagram post, because it’s standard practice to suck up to people who are worth a few billion dollars. Heck, I once stole quarters from the mall fountain to play Spy Hunter in the arcade.
Trust me, Spy Hunter was worth the trip to juvey.
UFC and Zuckerberg closed down the promotion’s APEX facility late last year, much to the chagrin of fans and fighters. What plans UFC has for Facebook or the Metaverse in the months to come is unknown, but it looks like Team Zuck will be hanging around the combat sports world for the foreseeable future.
For much more on this weekend’s UFC 284 event click here.