Mark Zuckerberg has taken his love for mixed martial arts to an unusually scenic setting, sparring with former UFC bantamweight champion Merab Dvalishvili on a floating platform in the middle of a lake. Sharing a short clip on Instagram, the Meta CEO traded punches, kicks and takedowns with “The Machine” in what was clearly a playful training session, but the elaborate setup makes it look more like a summer action sequence than an ordinary workout.
Zuckerberg and Dvalishvili were equipped with padded gloves, shin guards and additional leg protection as they moved around a square matted platform with no cage, ropes or safety railings. The footage shows exchanges of jabs, straight punches, body kicks and low kicks, followed by several takedown attempts and ground exchanges. Zuckerberg even completes a takedown in the edited footage, although Dvalishvili is clearly controlling the pace and giving his billionaire training partner plenty of room to work.
Zuckerberg has made MMA a serious hobby
The lake session is the latest chapter in Zuckerberg’s long-running fascination with combat sports. He began training Brazilian jiu-jitsu around 2020 and competed at the BJJ Tour Silicon Valley in 2023, winning a gold and a silver medal. He has trained with coach Dave Camarillo and has continued fitting three to four jiu-jitsu and MMA sessions into his week, alongside strength and mobility work.
His training partners have included some of the biggest names in the sport. Zuckerberg has worked with former UFC champions Israel Adesanya and Alexander Volkanovski, while also training with Alex Pereira. He previously hosted Adesanya and Volkanovski at his Northern California home, and in 2023 even took his MMA training onto a floating barge with the two champions. He later sparred with Dvalishvili in a gym in December 2025, shortly after the Georgian lost his bantamweight title to Petr Yan.
Zuckerberg’s commitment to MMA has not been without consequences. He tore his ACL while sparring in November 2023 while preparing for a competitive MMA bout and underwent reconstructive surgery. The knee brace visible in the latest footage is a reminder of that injury, making the sight of him exchanging grappling sequences with a former UFC champion on an unstable platform all the more striking.
From a floating fight camp to a splashdown
The latest session was anything but an impromptu workout. Camera operators, support boats, a striped-shirt referee, multiple shooting positions and aerial drone footage turn the encounter into a carefully produced piece of social-media entertainment.
There is even a cameo from Priscilla Chan, who paddles past in a kayak with others. When she notices her shirtless husband, Zuckerberg explains that Dvalishvili made him remove his shirt because it looked “more fighter.”
Dvalishvili also repeatedly demonstrates the wrestling advantage that made him one of the UFC’s most prolific takedown artists, lifting and carrying Zuckerberg around the platform. But Zuckerberg gets the final laugh, kicking Merab into the lake before the Georgian swims back, waves away a towel and gets his revenge by lifting Zuckerberg and dropping him into the water. For Zuckerberg, the barge appears to be becoming something of a summer tradition. This time, however, his guest was not just another elite fighter. It was a former UFC champion who was more than happy to make the Meta CEO take the plunge.
