When you think of Facebook founder and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and sports, well, not too much comes to mind. There’s that photo of him surfing and it seems like he enjoys playing leisure sports in the metaverse, but that’s usually it (other than that time he hung out with Nick Saban).
However, Zuckerberg revealed himself to be a massive MMA fan during a recent appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience. Per Vice, Zuck said that not only does he love to watch but he’s become something of a grappler himself.
“I really like watching UFC for example, but I also like doing the sport. It’s because I have a connection to it,” Zuckerberg said. “Since COVID, I got super into surfing and foiling, and then really into MMA. I know a lot of people who do it. There’s actually this really interesting connection between people who surf and do jiu-jitsu.”
Zuckerberg says in the interview that he has been training under jiu-jitsu fighter Dave Camarillo, who has trained UFC stars such as Daniel Cormier and Cain Velasquez.
“A bunch of the guys who I do that with, they kind of, have gyms on Kauai and I, basically collected a bunch of recommendations, ran them by a bunch of people who I know, and I trained with this guy Dave Camarillo—Guerilla Jiu Jitsu—the crazy thing is, it really is the best sport.”
As for why he’s drawn to MMA and jiu-jitsu, the Facebook founder says that it taps into something primal and competitive.
“The question isn’t how did I get into it, it’s how did I not know about it til right now?,” Zuckerberg said. “From, like, the very first session that I did, like, five minutes in—where has this been my whole life? My mom made me do three varsity sports and my life took a wrong turn when I chose to do fencing competitively instead of wrestling in high school or something. There’s something so primal about it, I don’t know. Since then I’ve just introduced a bunch of my friends to it—we train together, and we like, wrestle together, and there’s a certain intensity to it that I like.”
Fans of MMA and others around the sports world certainly had some thoughts on Zuckerberg’s excitement and passion for mixed martial arts fighting.
https://twitter.com/Brendelbored/status/1563235533555240961
Soon. https://t.co/2bzR5B1KIL pic.twitter.com/KJ9tdoDwkG
— Surprised Face Guy (@SurprisedFace) August 26, 2022
[Vice]
About Sean Keeley
Along with writing for Awful Announcing and The Comeback, Sean is the Managing Editor for Comeback Media. Previously, he created the Syracuse blog Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician and wrote 'How To Grow An Orange: The Right Way to Brainwash Your Child Into Rooting for Syracuse.' He has also written non-Syracuse-related things for SB Nation, Curbed, and other outlets. He currently lives in Seattle where he is complaining about bagels. Send tips/comments/complaints to sean@thecomeback.com.