Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and former UFC bantamweight champion Merab Dvalishvili traded punches, kicks, and takedowns on a floating barge in the middle of Lake Tahoe, with Zuckerberg’s wife Priscilla Chan kayaking past in the middle of it all. The tech billionaire posted the footage himself on Instagram on August 9, 2026, with the simple caption:
“Back on the barge with @merab.dvalishvili. Round 2.”
The roughly one-minute clip shows the two shirtless men working under a referee’s watch, both wearing MMA gloves, knee pads, and shin guards. They exchange strikes and clinch. At one point Dvalishvili, nicknamed “The Machine,” lifts Zuckerberg clean off the platform and carries him across the barge. Multiple camera angles, including aerial shots, capture the sunny setting with mountains in the background and a few spectators on nearby boats. The session ends with both men ending up in the water.
Zuckerberg later tells Chan, who paddles by on a blue kayak, that Dvalishvili made him ditch the shirt “because it looks more ‘fighter.’” Dvalishvili opens the video by declaring, “Round two against Mark Zuckerberg. Machine versus machine,” and later says, “Let’s do this every day.”
This was a personal sparring and training session without any sanctioned bout. There was no official UFC fight event, no scoring, no championship belt at stake, and no winner announced. Dvalishvili, who has lost the bantamweight title to Petr Yan in December 2025, was certainly not putting himself out to the limit while sparring a non-professional. As noted by media sources like Complex and TMZ, he had light to moderate contact sessions with some protection gear seen.
The session held in Lake Tahoe was their second public encounter. The pair had previously sparred in a gym on December 17, 2025, in a 11 minutes session with both striking and grappling included, along with referee former champion Aljamain Sterling.
Zuckerberg has been training in Brazilian jiu-jitsu and MMA for years, earning medals at a 2023 tournament in Silicon Valley, and getting instruction from such well-known fighters as Alex Pereira, Israel Adesanya, and Alexander Volkanovski. Combining the Meta founder with a world-class wrestler who has set an all-time UFC record on takedowns made for a shareable experience right away. The kayak appearance and the finish in the water only added to the surreal effect.
The clip is genuine training content shared by the participants themselves. Readers should not treat it as competitive proof that Zuckerberg can hang with a pro, or as anything beyond what the video clearly is: two guys who enjoy the mats taking their workout somewhere unusual.
