The battle of the billionaires is heating up, and Elon Musk is looking to claim a win. Ahead of a potential cage match with Meta’s own Mark Zuckerberg, Musk has accepted an offer from UFC champion and former mixed martial arts fighter George St-Pierre.
St-Pierre tweeted his excitement over training with Musk on Twitter earlier this week, alongside an invitation. The fighter told Musk he’s a “huge fan” and that it would be an “absolute honour” to train him for his yet-to-be-announced fight with Zuckerberg. In a reply, Musk accepted the invitation before claiming he did a practice round with Lex Fridman, an AI researcher with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a prominent podcaster. Fridman and Musk have already been training, with the former claiming in a tweet last night that he’s “extremely impressed with [Musk’s] strength, power, and skill, on the feet and on the ground”
@elonmusk I’m a huge fan of yours and it would be an absolute honor to help you and be your training partner for the challenge against Zuckerberg 👊😁
— Georges St-Pierre (@GeorgesStPierre) June 24, 2023
St-Pierre has garnered the title of greatest fighter ever by ESPN, while also winning UFC championships in two different weight divisions. The fighter announced his retirement from MMA in 2019 and has since been hocking supplements and dabbling in serving as a trainer. Fridman, meanwhile, is a hobby fighter, having received his black belt in jiu-jitsu in 2018. Fridman is also playing both sides of the aisle in regard to the widely discussed yet unconfirmed fight between Musk and Zuck — Fridman published a video to YouTube earlier this week of him sparring with the Meta CEO.
The reveal of Musk’s coaches comes in the wake of a highly publicized verbal sparring match between the Twitter owner and Zuckerberg. After Meta announced plans to launch a Twitter rival, Musk tweeted his desire for a cage match last week after a Twitter user pointed out that Zuckerberg practices jiu-jitsu in his spare time. In response, Zuck screenshotted Musk’s tweet and reposted it to Instagram with the ominous caption “send me location.” For now, it would seem that the fight is a go, but no date or location has been confirmed.