Facebook CEO and billionaire Mark Zuckerberg was choked purple by a local storekeeper in Los Angeles and the entire thing was caught on video.
But Zuckerberg knew the risks… and actually signed up for the experience.
Jeff Ibrahim, 40, got the better of the Meta founder at a recent jiu-jitsu tournament. Igrahim told NPR he recently picked up practicing the grappling martial art to help bond with his son and ended up across from Zuckerberg in the championship round of their bracket.
“I mean, whatever politics people have regarding Zuckerberg, he came across to me like, he was a cool dude,” Ibrahim said. “I just looked at him like he was just another person who wanted to compete in jiu-jitsu.”
“And the one thing that people don’t understand, the hardest part is stepping on a mat to compete in front of hundreds or thousands of people,” he said. “And, you know, I have to give him his props. He did that.”
Zuckerberg is no slouch on the mats. He won gold in a separate bracket at the same jiu-jitsu tournament in May, but only took the silver in his match with Ibrahim.
“He’s asking me questions about how long I’ve been competing for doing jiu-jitsu,” Ibrahim said. “I actually remember that he’s really into MMA. So we just start talking about that. He came along pretty friendly, actually.”
Watch Ibrahim get the better of Zuckerberg and take home the gold here —
Watch video of Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg competing, and losing, in a jiu-jitsu match a month ago. This was the match at the heart of @Bernstein's NYT story. This was taken by the winner's spouse and shared with NPR. pic.twitter.com/ccLAZ0LRce
— Fernando Alfonso III (@fernalfonso) June 6, 2023
The Horn editorial team