One Championship CEO Weighs In on Mark Zuckerberg-Elon Musk Beef

The possibility of a mixed martial arts bout between Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk has generated a fair amount of attention — both from the mainstream audience and the mixed martial arts community.

Recently, One Championship CEO Chatri Sityodtong shared his thoughts on how a fight between the two billionaires might look.

"I normally don't like to get involved in other people's spats, but I am compelled to say something on the latest development of the potential fight between Mark Zuckerberg vs Elon Musk,” Sityodtong wrote on Facebook. “A few hours ago, Elon said that he was planning to show up to Mark's house to fight him. Elon is one of the greatest entrepreneurs in history and I have a lot of respect for his guts, accomplishments, and intellect. However, I dislike bullying of any kind.

“First, Elon genuinely knows nothing about fighting or martial arts despite his claims to the contrary. As a lifelong expert martial artist who has been in my fair share of scraps, I can tell simply by the way he is acting. The problem with most men who have never fought and/or trained seriously in martial arts is exactly what Elon is doing. They have a false sense of bravado and no understanding or appreciation for what technical skills and knowledge can do in a fight. A legit blue belt in jiu-jitsu is very dangerous to someone who knows nothing.”

While UFC president Dana White expressed legitimate interest in putting together the fight between Zuckerberg and Musk, the Tesla founder balked at that notion, instead pointing toward a bout in Rome. Musk also said he would need to delay the date of the fight due to surgery. As a result, Zuckerberg said he was moving on from the fight “to focus on competing with people who take the sport seriously.”

From Sityodtong’s perspective, it’s clear that Musk is not truly interested in setting up an MMA fight. He also points out that Zuckerberg is already far more accomplished as a martial artist than his would-be foe, which is why he favors the Meta founder should the bout come to fruition.

“As CEO of the world's largest martial arts organization and someone involved in the fight game as my life, I know when people want to fight or not,” Sityodtong wrote. “When people want to fight, they accept a fight and simply show up. When people don't want to fight, they do exactly what Elon has been doing. They make up excuses, conditions, and reasons for avoiding the fight. Elon has made up puzzling excuse after excuse, be it the need for surgery, the need to do it in the Coliseum in Italy, the idea of doing it through his and Mark's foundations, the idea of a backyard practice run, etc.

“The global martial arts community is small. Consensus from people who have trained with Mark and/or Elon is that there is a large gap in skills in favor of Mark. Mark might be new to martial arts, but he is a real martial artist. He is a legit blue belt in jiu-jitsu under Dave Camarillo and consistently trains hard multiple times a week. Professor Dave is genuinely one of the finest black belts on the planet and his knowledge of both jiu-jitsu and mixed martial arts is unparalleled.

“I trained with Mark at his house a few months ago together with his teammates under Professor Dave. As a brown belt under Renzo Gracie, I can tell you that the training environment was truly world-class with utmost seriousness and intensity. Mark might be only 2 years into his journey as a martial artist, but he has fully adopted the warrior way of life. In my expert opinion, Mark will likely choke Elon unconscious in a fight. Elon could win by a lucky punch due to his size and weight. He's 186cm and weighs 100kg. Mark is 171cm and weighs 70kg. However, Mark is in fighting shape and Elon is not. Mark has the gas tank for 3 rounds and Elon has the gas tank for 3 minutes.

“As all martial artists know, skill often trumps size when there is a large disparity in skill. I am not saying that Mark will win 100%. A fight is a fight. Elon could get lucky. What I am saying though is that Mark has a very high probability of winning.”