Facebook founder and Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg took his talents to the mats this past weekend to participate in his first grappling competition after he started training Brazilian jiu-jitsu.
The 38-year-old tech billionaire touted his gold and silver medal wins on Instagram and Facebook after testing himself against other competitors at the BJJ Tour stop near Silicon Valley in California.
“Competed in my first jiu jitsu tournament and won some medals for the Guerrilla Jiu Jitsu team,” Zuckerberg wrote. “Thanks to Dave Camarillo, Khai Wu and James Terry for training me.”
Camarillo should be a familiar name to MMA fans after he was the lead Brazilian jiu-jitsu trainer at the American Kickboxing Academy for several years while working with fighters such as Josh Koscheck, Mike Swick and Jon Fitch.
Zuckerberg took up an interest in Brazilian jiu-jitsu during the global pandemic and he’s continued to train and learn as a hobby, which he then put to good use during the grappling tournament.
In one of the photos that Zuckerberg posted, he switched from wearing a traditional gi to shorts, which apparently were gifted to him by UFC featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski. In the comments on his post, Volkanovski called Zuckerberg a “legend” while adding “love the shorts.”
Zuckerberg responded by thanking Volkanovski for the gift and saying “when the No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter in the world gives you shorts, you wear them!”
Several other fighters including Israel Adesanya, Merab Dvalishvili and Brandon Moreno also offered up congratulations to Zuckerberg on a job well done with a few fighters even offering to work with him in the future.
Based on those kinds of opportunities along with his medal winning performance in his first grappling tournament, Zuckerberg has apparently found a new passion project outside of the Metaverse.
