ONE Championship Founder Chatri Sityodtong is fully on “Team Zuck” in the hypothetical battle of the billionaires.

Tech moguls Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk have been going at for the past several months about the possibility of getting their hands on each other for an MMA fight. What originally appeared to be a joking matter quickly turned into a “real” thing as each started showing off training images with high-level fighters throughout the following weeks. UFC President Dana White even got involved, mentioning on multiple occasions how he’s been doing what he can behind the scenes to make the potential “biggest fight ever” a reality.

However, that seemingly already slim possibility has lost even more flame after Zuckerberg recently stated that Musk isn’t serious about putting something together and needs surgery for an unknown reason. Zuckerberg has continually shown an interest in the sport, especially with his postings on his recently launched Threads app. Besides the UFC, Zuckerberg had namedropped ONE as a possible place that he’d like to work with for a fight and he has Sityodtong’s support in all areas. The promotional frontman didn’t hold back when sharing his thoughts in a Facebook post last night.

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. 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.

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. 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.

ONE taking the reigns and delivering on some kind of involvement between one or both of the billionaires would be quite the swerve and an obviously massive win from an exposure standpoint. ONE made its U.S. debut earlier this year with ONE Fight Night 10 in Denver, Colorado, featuring several notable stars and champions like former UFC flyweight champion and current ONE champion Demetrious Johnson. The event was a big enough success that ONE is expected to return to the country in 2024 with four events.

Hosting a spectacle like Zuckerberg vs. Musk wouldn’t be something traditionally in ONE’s wheelhouse as the promotion has always centered its focus around the purity of martial arts of all kinds. However, that opportunity would presumably be hard to pass up for any fight promoter no matter what they stand for.

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VIDEO STEW

The MMA Hour.

Sterling pre-fight Q&A.

UFC 292 Embedded 1.

UFC Connected: Andre Petroski.

Free (title) fight.

Bellator body shot KO.

PFL Fight Camp Confidential 6.

Road to Championship 12.

Road to Championship 13.

Cruz on Sterling-O’Malley.

Arnold’s worst week.

BJJ TDs.

LISTEN UP

On To the Next One. MMA Fighting’s Mike Heck and Alex K. Lee discuss the matches to make after UFC Vegas 78.

MORNING MUSIC

SOCIAL MEDIA BOUILLABAISSE

Night, night.

Forever been a no-brainer.

Inching closer?

Twinning.

When in Cuba.

Panchanmania.

Incredible.

Locked in.

Success.

Fancy strikes.

Wiggin’ out.

Adventure.

FIGHT ANNOUNCEMENTS

Mario Bautista (12-2) vs. Da’Mon Blackshear (14-5-1); UFC 292, Aug. 19

Rani Yahya (28-11-1, 1 NC) vs. Alatengheili (16-8-2); UFC Vegas 81, Oct. 14

Bruno Silva (23-9) vs. Sharabutdin Magomedov (11-0); UFC 294, Oct. 21

Jinh Yu Frey (11-9) vs. Viktoriia Dudakova (7-0); UFC 294, Oct. 21

Kevin Borjas (8-1) vs. Joshua Van (8-1); UFC 295, Nov. 11

FINAL THOUGHTS

Could you imagine if Zuckerberg ends up doing something in ONE? We would never hear the end of it.

Thanks for reading!

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