During a recent episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, host Joe Rogan and YouTube creator MrBeast, real name Jimmy Donaldson, discussed one of the most anticipated matchups that nearly happened: Mark Zuckerberg versus Elon Musk.
The topic emerged after Donaldson revealed that he had filmed the finale of Beast Games Season 3 inside the Roman Colosseum in Rome, making it the first competition held there in over a thousand years. Rogan connected the dots, noting that the two tech billionaires had reportedly planned their own face-off in that same historic arena.
“They were going to do Elon Musk versus Mark Zuckerberg in the Roman Colosseum,” Rogan said, “but it was going to cost $150 million just to secure the venue and set everything up.”
The cost may have kept the event from happening, but both men had clear opinions on how it would have gone down.
“It would have been a terrible match,” Rogan said.
The clear implication was that the result would have been one-sided. According to Rogan, the reason comes down entirely to Zuckerberg’s genuine commitment to training.
“Mark knows how to fig ht. Mark is like really into it. He trains all the time. I mean, he’s obsessed. He brought this guy that I know, Dave Camarillo, who’s a world-class coach who’s a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt, judo black belt, has been training him. Like, he’s training with like hardcore people.”
Donaldson confirmed this from his own experience. During their first conversation, Zuckerberg’s dedication to combat sports came through right away.
“The first time I talked to him years ago, and then at the end of it, he’s like, ‘Yo, you want to come train MMA or whatever at my lake?'” Donaldson recalled. “I was like, ‘Oh, um, no, but I appreciate the offer.’ But it was just like instantly, I could tell that’s like his way of like bonding and building friendships. He was being very serious. He wanted to roll.”
Rogan pointed to Zuckerberg’s on-mat performance as the most convincing evidence of all.
“The way you could tell that it’s not fake is watching him train,” Rogan said. “There’s no way he could be that good if he’s not actually putting in the time.”
“I watch even his striking, his jiu-jitsu, all that stuff. It’s clear there’s many hours been spent working on technique to achieve this level of proficiency. I mean, he doesn’t look like a world champion or anything like that, but he looks like a guy who’s training a lot.”
