Israel Adesanya/ Youtube
Mark Zuckerberg is rooting for Alex Volkanovski to take home the gold against Islam Makhachev at UFC 294.
On Saturday, Volakanovski is looking to do the unthinkable by taking on Makhachev in a rematch on only 11 days notice after Charles Oliveira pulled out of the fight due to an injury.
Ahead of the fight, Zuckerberg sent Volk a surprise video message that was shown to the UFC featherweight champion by Nina Drama during an interview posted on her YouTube page.
“Hey Volk! Really excited for your fight this weekend. Your last one was already one of the best fights of the year and this time, I’m looking forward to seeing you go out there and cement your status as one of the greatest of all time. Alright, good luck and have fun out there, man.”
Volk was appreciative of the love from Zuck ahead of his big fight.
“How good’s that. Not every day you get a shout out from Mark Zuckerberg, eh? It’s pretty incredible. So uh, that’s legit. Now look, uh, obviously you know we keep in touch anyway so he’s been great but uh, that’s cool. We’re usually just doing voice messages or messaging but to see him actually saying that, that’s cool. It is cool. I appreciate that, thank you.”
The UFC champion also spoke about his experience sparring with Zuck in the Metaverse while using the Meta Quest 3 headset.
“When I was there, and we did that, he gave me the goggles and we had a boxing match… I was getting angles, and it actually felt like I was sparring… It was fun, I got a proper workout.”
Zuck went on to wish Volkanovski luck in his Instagram story.
Mark Zuckerberg/Instagram
Earlier this year, Zuckerberg sparred with Volanovski, Israel Adesanya, and several other MMA fighters at City kickboxing while training for his upcoming MMA fight.