David Bridges
So Mark Zuckerberg is into fighting now.
The billionaire co-founder and chief executive of Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc. talked about his newfound interest in mixed martial arts recently on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast, and on Saturday posted an Instagram video of himself sparring with UFC fighter Khai Wu.
He even got a shout-out from former UFC champ Conor McGregor, who commented: “Yo!!! F—ing awesome Mark!”
“I really like watching UFC … but I also like doing the sport,” Zuckerberg, 38, said on Rogan’s podcast. “It’s because I have a connection to it. Since COVID, I got super into surfing and foiling, and then really into MMA. I know a lot of people who do it.”
Also from the podcast: Mark Zuckerberg tells Joe Rogan that ‘we don’t want to be deciding what’s true and false’ on Facebook
Zuckerberg told Rogan that regular morning exercise helps him “reset” his body, and keeps him from being overwhelmed by the very technology his company produces.
“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,” he added. “There’s something so primal about it, I don’t know.”
His latest offbeat pastime probably shouldn’t be a surprise, seeing how Zuckerberg has touted a number of his previous hobbies, including killing his own meat, binge-reading, surfing and hydrofoiling.
It also probably just feels good to hit (or kick) something, considering how Meta stock
META,
-3.05%
has sunk more than 50% year to date and Zuckerberg’s personal fortune has taken a roughly $66 billion plunge this year, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Tessa Everly
Cameron Steel
