Mark Zuckerberg is the renowned CEO of Meta (formerly known as Facebook), but he’s also an avid fan of martial arts.
He has made a significant announcement on Instagram that has garnered attention from the martial arts community. The billionaire tech mogul has proudly revealed his promotion to blue belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu by none other than legendary coach Dave Camarillo. In the same breath, Zuckerberg congratulated Camarillo on achieving his well-deserved 5th-degree black belt.
Dave Camarillo has an impressive track record in the world of martial arts, having been the BJJ coach at the prestigious American Kickboxing Academy, where he trained UFC champions like Cain Velasquez and Daniel Cormier, among others.
Zuckerberg’s journey in BJJ has been somewhat controversial, with speculations surrounding his past competition experiences. Some claim that Zuckerberg was caught in a submission during one of his BJJ matches and even got slept, which, according to his rep, he disputes.
Regardless of any controversies, Zuckerberg’s dedication to BJJ is evident in his first tournament results. In his debut competition, he won the gold medal in the Nogi Master 1 White Belt Feather Weight Division and the Silver medal in the Gi Master 2 White Belt Feather Weight Division.
His Facebook post about the tournament garnered immense attention, even drawing comments from famous figures like UFC’s Conor McGregor and jiu-jitsu world champion Bernardo Faria.
The opponents who faced Zuckerberg in the competition spoke positively about their experiences. Jeff Ibrahim, who defeated Zuckerberg, praised him for stepping onto the mat to compete, highlighting the courage it takes to face an audience of hundreds or thousands in a competition. Vijay Hanumantha Raju, who also faced Zuckerberg, shared his surprise at realizing he would be competing against the tech mogul just minutes before the match.
Prior to making his competition debut, Zuckerberg went on JRE and detailed what attracted him to MMA and BJJ saying:
“And then it’s like, okay, well, f**k, now I need to like, go reset myself and be able to kind of be productive and not be stressed about this, how do I do that? So I basically I go, I like, I read, I taken all the information. And, and then I go do something physical for an hour or two, and just kind of reset myself. And over time, what I’ve found is that it’s not actually just, I used to run a lot. But the problem with running is you can think a lot while you’re running.”
“So I’ve, um, especially over the last couple of years, I’ve gotten really into things that require full focus.”
“I mentioned that I spent a bunch of time and in Hawaii, our family has a has a ranch down there and like I spent a lot of time foiling and surfing and it’s like, if you’re foiling or surfing and you’re on like a wave, you have to be you have to pay attention the whole time, right? Or else you’re gonna fall and maybe get held under and it’s like not, that’s not a great experience.”
” And this is sort of how I got into MMA too, is after now now, I don’t spend as much time in kawaii because things are ramping back up and I’m in the office a lot more. So it’s like, Alright, there’s, there’s not as much boiling in Palo Alto. So it’s like, Alright, what’s the thing that is both like, just super engaging physically, but also intellectually, and where you can’t afford to focus on something else?”
“And I think to some degree, it’s like MMA is like the perfect thing. Because it’s like, if you don’t, like you, you stop paying attention for one second, you’re gonna end up on the bottom. Yeah, right. So. So it’s, so I’ve just found that that is just really important for me, in terms of like, what I do and being able to just kind of maintain my energy level, maintain my focus, because then like, after, you know, an hour or two of, of working out or rolling or wrestling with friends or training with different folks, it’s like, now I’m ready to go solve whatever problem at work for the day and like I’ve fully processed all the different news for the day. That’s, that’s come in, and and we’re just ready to go.”
