'Shirtless Zuckerberg' spotted training with MMA fighters ahead of potential cage fight with Musk

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg appears ready for his potential cage fight with fellow billionaire Elon Musk. Zuckerberg trained hard with world-class MMA fighters and posted a photo to send a message to Musk.

Zuckerberg trained withIsrael Adesanya, the middleweight champion and Alex Volkanovski, the featherweight champion and shared a shirtless picture with his shredded body on full display.He captioned the post saying: "It's an honour to train with you guys!"

The two MMA fighters had travelled to Zuckerberg's residence in Northern Californiaimmediately after the completion of UFC 290 to help him prepare better.

Add WION as a Preferred Source

Adesanya also posted the same picture and captioned it:"No fugazi with Mark", accompanied by a shark emoji.In response, Zuckerberg graciously expressed his gratitude in the comments section, thanking the UFC stars for their unwavering support.

Zuckerberg sharing a picture of him preparing for the fight comes weeks after Musk posted a similar photo after his session withUFC legend George St-Pierre.

UFC President Dana White has confirmed that both Musk andZuckerberg are "dead serious" about the prospect of squaring up against each other in an octagon cage fight.

WATCH |Gravitas Plus: Threads: Another app to doomscroll?

Dana White confirms the fight

The UFC boss informed it was the Facebook co-founder that hit him first regarding the fight challenge by Musk.

"Mark Zuckerberg hit me up first and said, 'Is he serious?' I said, 'I don't know, let me ask him.' I asked him and he said, 'Yeah, I'm dead serious'," added White.

"This would be the biggest fight ever in the history of the world. Bigger than anything that's ever been done. It would break all pay-per-view records. These guys would raise hundreds of millions of dollars for charity, and you don't have to be a fight fan to be interested in this fight."

Genesis of the proposed fight

The speculations around a potential fight between the two billionaires started last month whenMusk commented on a tweet about Facebook launching Twitter competitor Threads.

“I’m sure Earth can’t wait to be exclusively under Zuck’s thumb with no other options. At least it will be ‘sane’. Was worried there for a moment,” Musk tweeted with a crying-laughing emoji.

A Twitter user replied to Musk saying he should be careful of Zuckerberg since the Facebook boss had been practising jiu-jitsu, a Brazilian martial art form.

“I’m up for a cage match if he is lol,” replied a cavalier Musk.

Since then, the rivalry has only intensified between the duo. After Meta launched Threads, Musk and his team filed a legal case against Zuckerberg for copying Twitter. Days later, Musk took a stinging jibe at Zuckerberg by tweeting,"Zuck is a cuck".

(With inputs from agencies)

WATCH WION LIVE HERE: