Elon Musk sparring partner ‘extremely impressed’ by billionaire’s strength

‘It was epic,’ says podcaster Lex Fridman, who has also trained with Mark Zuckerberg

Elon Musk sparred with Lex Fridman on 26 June, 2023, ahead of a potential clash with Mark Zuckerberg (Lex Fridman/ Twitter)

Elon Musk has begun training for his anticipated fight against Mark Zuckerberg, sparring with the same partner as his tech rival.

Podcaster and AI researcher Lex Fridman, who holds a black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, said he was “extremely impressed” with Mr Musk’s strength and technique after practising with him on Monday.

The session came just days after Mr Fridman grappled with the Meta boss, who has been learning jiu-jitsu since last year.

Both billionaires are expected to face off in a mixed martial arts contest after Mr Musk challenged his tech rival to a “cage match” earlier this month.

The 51-year-old Tesla boss has no prior experience with martial arts and claims to not do any exercise beyond picking up his children and “throwing them in the air”.

He is a long-time friend of Mr Fridman, who has been practising jiu-jitsu for more than a decade and earned his black belt five years ago.

“I did an impromptu training session with Elon Musk for a few hours yesterday,” Mr Fridman wrote on Twitter.

“I’m extremely impressed with his strength, power, and skill, on the feet and on the ground. It was epic.”

Mr Musk replied: “That was fun!”

Mr Fridman added that he hoped the two tech bosses would continue to train at martial arts but not actually fight each other.

Within hours of sparring with his friend, Mr Musk had taken up an offer from UFC legend Georges St-Pierre to train him for the bout.

The former two-weight UFC champion is considered one of the greatest ever mixed martial artists, having retired in 2019 after winning belts at welterweight and middleweight.

It is not yet clear when the fight between Mr Musk and Mr Zuckerberg will take place, though the UFC Apex centre in Las Vegas has been proposed as a potential location.

The contest has been endorsed by UFC president Dana White, who said last week that both men were “absolutely dead serious” about fighting each other.

“This would be the biggest fight ever in the history of the world,” he said.

“Bigger than anything that’s ever been done. It would break all pay-per-view records... You don’t have to be a fighting fan to be interested in this fight. Everybody would want to see it.”