Mark Zuckerberg’s presence in the MMA and grappling communities has been a big talking point of the last few months, as well as a point of dispute.
From closing out the UFC Apex for a private viewing of UFC Fight Night 211 to training with UFC champions and competing in grappling tournaments, Zuckerberg has been supported and criticized by many through his involvement in the combat sports world.
Well, decorated grappler Garry Tonon, who returns to action Friday at ONE Fight Night 12 in Bangkok, Thailand, is all for someone with the profile of one of the world’s most famous billionaires taking interest in MMA, but especially jiu-jitsu.
“When I first heard him wanting to do mixed martial arts and jiu-jitsu on Joe Rogan, I was really excited, man,” Tonon told MMA Junkie. “… A guy like Zuckerberg obviously has a lot of eyes on him, and people are paying attention to what he’s doing. He’s a crazy, incredibly successful guy. So for him to be talking about our sport, it’s just big.”
Tonon sees Zuckerberg’s involvement as a positive thing rather than a negative. Jiu-jitsu has long been a niche sport, and he strongly believes the attention that Zuckerberg brings to the sport could help raise its profile.
That’s why Tonon is annoyed to see others talk poorly about Zuckerberg’s liking of the grappling arts.
“One of the things I hate about the people of our sport is when a celebrity gets involved, I think Demi Lovato started training once … they talk sh*t about some of these guys getting involved in jiujitsu,” Tonon explained. “They’ll get a belt promotion, and everyone is talking sh*t.
“It’s like, ‘Jesus, guys. We got a good thing going here. We got momentum. It’s going to help all these jiu-jitsu athletes that you love make money. This is going to help the sport get more successful and all these sorts of things. It’s like, ‘Man, we’re making it, and you guys are trying to ruin it.’ Just let it be, man.”
For Tonon, that doesn’t mean Zuckerberg is exempt from criticism outside his love for grappling. After all, he’s one of the most powerful men on earth and has been involved in controversies through his social media giant Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.
“I’m not saying that these guys doesn’t deserve some sh*t talk, where sh*t talk is due when people make mistakes or they do things,” Tonon said. “I’ll be the first to tell you that I’m not totally cool with all the things that social media has been doing in terms of censorship and what I believe to be a mass manipulation of human beings. I don’t even want to say the American people, just human beings period. I definitely think some problems need to be solved.
“I’ll definitely throw criticism that way. I’m not saying you can’t criticize these people, but what I am saying is that in the context of doing MMA and jiu-jitsu, we should be stoked. We should all be happy that these big names and these super successful people are interested.
“It just goes to show you it’s such a great representation for people, that if somebody like that can get something out of this, if they can get something out of jiu-jitsu and mixed martial arts, and it’s meaningful to them, then hell, man, it can do something for them. I mean, these guys have presumably, at least from most people’s perspectives, whatever the hell they want. They’re the richest and most powerful men in the world. They don’t ever have to get punched in the face or grapple. So if that’s meaningful to these people, man, we must really have something going on. There really has to be something to this.”
