Mark Zuckerberg has denied claims he was choked out at a Jiu-Jitsu tournament last month.
The Meta boss took part in his first ever Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu tournament in Redwood City, California on 6 May - nabbing himself gold and silver medals.
However, one fight was stopped early, with the referee claiming he had heard Zuckerberg snore - a sign that he was no longer conscious. You can see a clip of the fight here:
Referee and veteran fighter José Lucas Costa da Silva told the New York Times: “This is something we are trained to know,” before saying Zuckerberg was a good sport who had been ‘enjoying the moment’.
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But Zuckerberg and his coach Dave Camarillo have since disputed the claims, saying that he was grunting, not snoring.
In an email to the publication, Zuckerberg said plainly: “That never happened.”
While Meta said in a statement to the Daily Mail: “At no point during the competition was Mark knocked unconscious. That never happened.”
A spokesperson for the company went on to say that the referee ‘apologized to Mark and his coach after the match for prematurely calling the match’.
In the footage, Zuckerberg does appear to be annoyed at the fight being halted so soon and has a short discussion with the ref.
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He then hugged his opponent and locked hands with him - seemingly showing him that was all well.
After the competition, Zuckerberg took to Instagram to show off some of his moves, writing: “Competed in my first jiu jitsu tournament and won some medals for the Guerrilla Jiu Jitsu team. Thanks to @davecamarillo @khaiwu @intense0ne for training me!”
Zuckerberg has previously revealed that he got into martial arts during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Speaking to Joe Rogan, he said: “I really like watching UFC for example, but I also like doing the sport.
“There's something so primal about it, I don't know.
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“Since then I've just introduced a bunch of my friends to it. We train together, and we like, wrestle together, and there's a certain intensity to it that I like.”
The Facebook founder said that training was ‘really important’ as it helped him to retain his focus.
“It's because I have a connection to it,” he said.
“Since Covid, I got super into surfing and foiling, and then really into MMA. I know a lot of people who do it.
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“MMA is like the perfect thing because it's like, if you stop paying attention for one second, you're gonna end up on the bottom.”
Topics: Mark Zuckerberg, Sport, US News