Facebook chief executive and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg has voiced his desire for UFC middleweight champion Dricus du Plessis to face Brazilian light heavyweight titlist Alex Pereira.
Pereira shared a photo of himself on Instagram watching Du Plessis retain his belt with a fourth-round submission of Israel Adesanya on Saturday, suggesting that he would return to middleweight to fight the South African by adding: “Coming down to 185 one more time.”
Zuckerberg, who has 14.6 million followers on the platform to Pereira’s 4.7 million, responded: “Would love to see it.”
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Zuckerberg: Facebook ceo hails Hooker
Technology mogul Zuckerberg is known to be a huge fan and practitioner of MMA, training with Adesanya and fellow UFC fighter Alex Volkanovski in July 2023.
The 40-year-old took part in a jiu-jitsu tournament that year but suffered a serious knee injury while training in November, sharing a photo from his hospital bed.
Dan Hooker, who won on the same card as Du Plessis at UFC 305 in Perth in the early hours of Sunday morning, also received a reply to his post about the event from Zuckerberg.
After Hooker shared a snap of gruesome cuts he collected against Mateusz Gamrot, Zuckerberg described them as “just a scratch” – a reference to Hooker’s previous remarks downplaying his fight injuries.
Two-time middleweight king Nigerian-New Zealander Adesanya was the reigning champion when he trained with Zuckerberg and had been attempting to regain his titles against Du Plessis.
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Zuckerberg vs Elon Musk: MMA epic?
One of the only people in the world who can rival Zuckerberg’s wealth, Elon Musk, has teased a bout between the billionaire pair.
Musk, who is 13 years Zuckerberg’s senior, has trained with UFC legend Georges St-Pierre, and UFC president Dana White said last year that talks had taken place over the possibility of the fight happening at Rome’s Colosseum.
“It’s real,” said White at the time. “They do want to fight. We were literally talking about the Colosseum for that fight.
“I actually did have a meeting with the minister of culture’s team in Italy to actually have that fight in the Colosseum, if it would happen.
“It would be MMA. No steroids, no steroids allowed; these guys would be drug tested. Zuckerberg takes this s*** very seriously.”
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Elom Musk ‘legit judo guy’
“He is a huge UFC fan, he trains,” White added of Zuckerberg. “He’s an MMA fan, I should say. Elon grew up doing judo, he’s a legit judo guy.
“This is one of those fights that, if we did do that, I would build a killer undercard with tons of great fights and them in the main event.
“But think about how big that fight is. Two of the richest, most powerful guys in the f****** world are going fight on the biggest stage ever.”
White predicted the event would make $1 billion. “Who doesn’t want to see that fight?” he asked.
“That’s the kind of fight your grandmother would watch. [Donald] Trump would have to fight [Vladimir] Putin for a fight to be bigger than that.”
