Elon Musk has begun training in mixed martial arts in preparation for his billionaire brawl with Mark Zuckerberg.
The two tech titans have traded verbal blows in recent weeks after the Twitter boss called out the Facebook founder on social media. It came after it emerged Zuckerberg, 39, maybe launching a rival to Musk’s social media site.
Last week the pair agreed to a fight, possibly in the famous UFC “Vegas Octagon”. Now pictures have emerged showing Musk in an “impromptu training session” ahead of the bout.
“I did an impromptu training session with Elon Musk for a few hours yesterday,” tweeted Lex Fridman, a scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Fridman shared two photos from the session.
One appears to show the two of them grappling, while the other appears to show Musk, who is worth £183 billion, completing a hip toss on the smaller Fridman.
“I’m extremely impressed with his strength, power, and skill, on the feet and on the ground,” Fridman said, describing their session as “epic”, whilst Musk replied saying “That was fun!”.
Fridman continued: “It’s really inspiring to see Elon and Mark doing martial arts, but I think the world is served far better if they train martial arts but not fight in the cage.”
SpaceX founder Musk, 51, has already accepted an offer by UFC legend Georges St-Pierre, 42, to train him for the cage fight.
The South African is no stranger to combat and trained in Kyokushin karate, taekwondo, judo, and “Brazilian jiu-jitsu” during his childhood. Previously he shared a photo of himself squaring off against a sumo wrestler.
“Managed to throw him, but it cost me smashing my c5-c6 disc & eight years of mega back pain,” he tweeted last year.
Zuckerberg, for his part, is known for his jiu-jitsu skills. In May, the tech magnate showed off his fighting prowess in a now-viral Instagram post showing the once-tech geek throwing his opponents around as he won gold and silver medals at a Brazilian jiu-jitsu tournament.
He took to Instagram to share images from the bout, writing, “Competed in my first jiu-jitsu tournament and won some medals for the Guerrilla Jiu-Jitsu team.” (Mirror)