18 February 2024 , 11:00
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Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg walked out to the cage with Alex Volkanovski at UFC 298 but the Australian lost his world title as he was brutally knocked out by Ilia Topuria.
Zuckerberg was cageside for the UFC’s pay-per-view event on Saturday night at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California and he made a surprise appearance in Volkanovski’s corner for his main event clash with Topuria. The Meta founder took his seat when the fight started and was hoping Volkanovski could make the sixth defence of his belt, but he failed to do as Topuria knocked him out in the second round.
Volkanovski said of his decision to have Zuckerberg walk to the cage with him: “He was coming to watch and everybody knows that I’m mates with him and I chat to him regularly. I said ‘I’d love to have you walk out with me’ and he said ‘As long as it doesn’t get in your way’ and of course it didn’t. It was something different.”
Zuckerberg trained with Volkanovski and former UFC champion Israel Adesanya last year when he was in talks for a potential cage fight against fellow tech boss Elon Musk.
Volkanovski was beaten by Topuria (Getty Images)The fight didn’t materialised and Zuckerberg turned his attention to an MMA debut against a different opponent, but had to undergo surgery after suffering a knee injury during training.
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UFC bantamweight Merab shared a funny exchange with Zuckerberg at the event as he spoke to the tech boss during his one-sided win over Henry Cejudo. “We became friends on social media and he’s been supporting me,” he said of Zuckerberg. “During the rounds he was coaching me telling how much time was left, he was like my fourth cornerman.”