ONE Championship CEO Chatri Sityodtong is firmly on the side of Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg when it comes to the tech billionaire’s ongoing feud with the Titan of Tesla, Elon Musk.
The ongoing rivalry between Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg has seemingly hit a boiling point after Musk revealed a series of details regarding his long-teased cage match with the Meta CEO. However, those claims, including one that the UFC would not be involved in the promotion of their fight whatsoever, were quickly debunked by Zuckerberg. In fact, ‘The Zuck’ even went so far as to advise that any news regarding the fantasy matchup should be disregarded unless it comes from him directly.
Shortly after, Zuckerberg suggested that it could be “time to move on” from discussing the proposed social media smackdown, adding that Elon Musk was not taking the contest seriously. Musk has since responded, threatening to show up at Zuckerberg’s home in Palo Alto to fight him right then and there. A comment that has drawn the ire of the MMA community.
ONE Championship Founder Chatri Sityodtong Gives His Take on Musk vs. ‘The Zuck’
That includes ONE CEO Chatri Sityodtong who delivered his lengthy take on the Musk vs. Zuckerberg debate via Facebook. Sityodtong, a lifelong martial artist himself, sided with Zuckerberg and slammed Musk for his bully-like antics.
“I normally don’t like to get involved in other people’s spats, but I am compelled to say something on the latest development of the potential fight between Mark Zuckerberg vs Elon Musk,” Sityodtong wrote. “A few hours ago, Elon said that he was planning to show up to Mark’s house to fight him. Elon is one of the greatest entrepreneurs in history and I have a lot of respect for his guts, accomplishments, and intellect. However, I dislike bullying of any kind.
“First, Elon genuinely knows nothing about fighting or martial arts despite his claims to the contrary. As a lifelong expert martial artist who has been in my fair share of scraps, I can tell simply by the way he is acting. The problem with most men who have never fought and/or trained seriously in martial arts is exactly what Elon is doing. They have a false sense of bravado and no understanding or appreciation for what technical skills and knowledge can do in a fight. A legit blue belt in jiu-jitsu is very dangerous to someone who knows nothing.
“As CEO of the world’s largest martial arts organization and someone involved in the fight game as my life, I know when people want to fight or not. When people want to fight, they accept a fight and simply show up,” Sityodtong continued. “When people don’t want to fight, they do exactly what Elon has been doing. They make up excuses, conditions, and reasons for avoiding the fight. Elon has made up puzzling excuse after excuse, be it the need for surgery, the need to do it in the Coliseum in Italy, the idea of doing it through his and Mark’s foundations, the idea of a backyard practice run, etc.
“The global martial arts community is small. Consensus from people who have trained with Mark and/or Elon is that there is a large gap in skills in favor of Mark. Mark might be new to martial arts, but he is a real martial artist. He is a legit blue belt in jiu-jitsu under Dave Camarillo and consistently trains hard multiple times a week. Professor Dave is genuinely one of the finest black belts on the planet and his knowledge of both jiu-jitsu and mixed martial arts is unparalleled.
“I trained with Mark at his house a few months ago together with his teammates under Professor Dave. As a brown belt under Renzo Gracie, I can tell you that the training environment was truly world-class with utmost seriousness and intensity. Mark might be only 2 years into his journey as a martial artist, but he has fully adopted the warrior way of life.
“In my expert opinion, Mark will likely choke Elon unconscious in a fight. Elon could win by a lucky punch due to his size and weight. He’s 186cm and weighs 100kg. Mark is 171cm and weighs 70kg. However, Mark is in fighting shape and Elon is not. Mark has the gas tank for 3 rounds and Elon has the gas tank for 3 minutes.
“As all martial artists know, skill often trumps size when there is a large disparity in skill. I am not saying that Mark will win 100%. A fight is a fight. Elon could get lucky. What I am saying though is that Mark has a very high probability of winning.“