Mark Zuckerberg has been making combat headlines over the past few years as he hones his MMA grappling and striking skills alongside some of the best in the sport. However, there was a time when the Meta owner didn’t want anyone to know he was transitioning to combat sports and even ended up disguising himself for a jiu-jitsu tournament.
It’s no secret that Zuckerberg is a massive fan of Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). The billionaire techy has attended multiple UFC events over the years and has even sparred with the likes of Alex Pereira, Max Holloway, Israel Adesanya, and many more. In turn, Zuckerberg has gained the respect of fighters and fight fans. He may live a one-of-a-kind life off the mat, but when he’s on the mat he’s just one of the guys.
Earlier this week, Zuckerberg made another appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast and ended up discussing his early efforts to start learning jiu-jitsu. Given his global status and notoriety, Zuckerberg actually had to hide his identity and wear a disguise for his first official grappling tournament, but that only lasted so long.
“I guess I rolled into this tournament and I registered under my first and middle names so people didn’t know who I was,” revealed Zuckerberg (h/t MMA Fighting). “I had like sunglasses and a hat, and I wore a COVID mask. It wasn’t until they called our names to stop onto the mat that I was like, ‘All right,’ took all the stuff off, and the guy [was] like, ‘Uh, what?’ I think he was trying to figure out what was going on.
“Afterwards, his coach was like, ‘I think that was Mark Zuckerberg who just submitted me,’ and the coach is like, ‘No. No way.’ [The other guy] was like, ‘No, I think that was.’ The coach was like, ‘What? You’re fighting Mark Zuckerberg? Get back in there, go fight him,’ and he was like, ‘No, he just submitted me.’”
Zuckerberg, who recently appointed UFC CEO Dana White to join the Meta board, is feeling rejuvenated ever since taking on some MMA training. The billionaire owner swears it has provided him with a level of balance in a life more stressful than most.
“It’s really important for me for balance,” Zuckerberg explained. “I basically try to train every morning. I’m either doing general fitness, or a kind of MMA [discipline], and do sometimes grappling, sometimes striking, or some both. But it got to the point where I tore my ACL training. At that point, I wasn’t integrated between my weight training and my fighting training, so I think I was probably overdoing it. So now, I’m trying to do this in a cohesive way, which I think will be more sustainable.
“It definitely takes the edge off. After a couple of hours of doing that in the morning, it’s like nothing else that day is going to stress you out that much. You can just deal with it.”