Referee says Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg choked unconscious – “He started to snore”
Famed Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has recently taken to the sport of jiu jitsu and competitive grappling.
Zuckerberg has been competing as often as he can, working to improve his craft.
According to Lucas Costa who referee a recent contest in Redwood City, California, has spoken up about a recent incident that occurred at the event.
Meta boss Zuckerberg got into a heated exchange with Costa at his first-ever Brazilian jiujitsu tournament — then went on to surprise martial-arts fans by winning gold and silver medals.
Video footage of the weekend match shows the 38-year-old Facebook billionaire attempting to pin his competitor to the ground — but ending up pinned to the mat himself.
About two minutes into the bout, the referee calls the match, believing Zuckerberg — who had spent most of the match on his back — had finally “tapped out” and handed it to his competitor, according to Yahoo News.
An obviously frustrated Zuckerberg — who rose from the mat with his robe open and chest exposed — then claimed to the ref that the call was an error, Yahoo reported.
“There was no argument,” Costa told Bloody Elbow. “It was in Gi and he got choked out. That was the video you saw. I stopped it and he wanted to check with me about why I stopped it. He didn’t know what was happening, which was one of the reasons I stopped it. But he had started to snore and the rule set says that snoring is a version of a verbal tap.”
The match was eventually re-cast as a 0-0 draw, which appears to please Zuckerberg in the video as he then hugs his opponent.
Following publication of this article, a Meta spokesperson reached out to MyMMANews on the record and stated: “At no point during the competition was Mark knocked unconscious. That never happened.”
UPDATE: After publishing our story, I heard from both Mark Zuckerberg and his Brazilian jujitsu coach. They both insisted that Mr. Zuckerberg had *not* lost consciousness, and the coach said that the referee had mistaken his effortful grunting for snores: https://t.co/xicWVdSfke
— Joe Bernstein (@Bernstein) June 3, 2023
