‘Zuck him up’: Mark Zuckerberg spars with pro MMA fighter Khai ‘The Shadow’ Wu in new video

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg shared a video of himself sparring with mixed martial artist Khai ‘The Shadow’ Wu ahead of the fighter’s UFC debut on Saturday versus Joshua Dillon. 

Zuckerberg shared the video on Instagram and it began by showing the two trading punches and kicks in a studio while outfitted in fight training pads. 

The pair are then seen grappling on the floor, with Wu exclaiming ‘nice!’ when Zuckerberg rolls over Wu and gets on top of him. 

The video, which garnered over 200,000 likes as of Saturday night, quickly went viral and drew support, including from others in the fighting world. 

‘This is great!’ Joe Rogan commented. ‘I’m so happy to see this. Training looks solid too!’ 

‘MMA is like the perfect thing’ Zuckerberg said recently when appearing on Joe Rogan’s podcast

Zuckerberg appeared recently The Joe Rogan Experience podcast, and revealed to Rogan his love for mixed martial arts.

‘I really like watching UFC for example, but I also like doing the sport,’ Zuckerberg said on the podcast.

He explained fighting is ‘really important’ to him and helps to maintain his ‘energy level and focus.’ 

‘It’s because I have a connection to it,’ he continued. ‘Since COVID, I got super into surfing and foiling, and then really into MMA. I know a lot of people who do it.’

‘MMA is like the perfect thing,’ he continued. ‘Because it’s like, if you stop paying attention for one second, you’re gonna end up on the bottom.’

Former two-division UFC champion Conor McGregor also commented on the post, writing ‘Yo!!! F****** awesome Mark!’

‘Can I unlock these skills in the metaverse?’ online content creator Adam the Creator said, while the official UFC account said he had ‘nice combos.’

Brazilian Jiu Jitsu practitioner Bernardo Faria commented ‘Amazing!!! Half guard, arm-bars, triangle! Super cool!’ 

Zuckerberg met UFC president Dana White for dinner in late June, and White has expressed he knows of Zuckerberg’s love for the sport, though its unclear whether they met over any professional endeavors. 

But some users were less kind to the Facebook founder, and said Wu was going easy on him. 

One commenter joked Wu ‘does not wanna hit Zuck and lose his account,’ while another called for him to get in the ring with Amazon boss Jeff Bezos.

Another jokingly threatened to challenge him to a fight to ‘unban his business account.’ 

Others wondered if Zuck’s newly revealed passion would translate into his company’s products and asked if it meant users would be able to fight in the metaverse. 

Zuckerberg said he trains with Khai Wu, an American martial artist making his UFC debut on Saturday

Zuckerberg had to change and update his new ‘metaverse’ avatar after it took heat from the internet

The Meta CEO as faced criticism recently over the quality of Meta’s new virtual reality ventures, with some pointing out it looks of poor quality. 

He shared his initial avatar in front of an animated Eiffel Tower and was roundly mocked by the internet, with many comparing it to the graphics of now decades-old Nintendo games. 

Zuckerberg has since shared an updated version and admitted the Metaverse graphics shown were rudimentary.  

One Twitter user put it succinctly: ‘He has spent billions on creating the old Nintendo Wii level graphics’. 

It wasn’t just random people on the internet, as New York Times tech columnist Kevin Roose called the graphics ‘worse than a 2008 Wii game’.