Mark Zuckerberg Speaks Out Following ACL Surgery, Injury During MMA Fight Practice The Meta CEO injured himself while training in his backyard.
By Emily Rella
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
That looks like it hurt!
Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed on Instagram and Threads (both of which he owns) that he had ACL surgery on his knee last week — and recovery is proving to be a challenge.
Zuck told followers he suffered the injury while practicing MMA in his backyard for an upcoming fight.
Related: Mark Zuckerberg Rents Out Private Arena for MMA Fight
"I was training for a competitive MMA fight early next year, but now that's delayed a bit," he said. "Still looking forward to doing it after I recover. Thanks to everyone for the love and support."
On threads, Meta's competition to Elon Musk's X, Zuckerberg updated his followers on his progress.
Naturally, the CEO has found himself playing UFC games to fill the void of not being able to fight in real life — except things became "a bit too real" when his character in the game was also, ironically, injured.
"My fighter started 39 years old, but turns out every time you lose your fighter needs 9 months to recover from injuries plus time to get a new fight and then training camp," he explained. "I chose the hardest difficulty and found myself sitting here at the peak of post-surgery pain with my fighter 0-8, almost 54 years old, still trying to get his first win in the UFC."
A classic case of life imitating art.
Zuck's long since been a fan of martial arts (he rented out the entire UFC APEX in Las Vegas for a match in 2022, after all) but has been taking the sport more seriously as of late.
Related: Mark Zuckerberg Posts Shirtless Photo After MMA Training
This past May, the billionaire won a gold medal in his first-ever Jiu-Jitsu competition in Woodside, California.
"MMA is the perfect thing," Zuckerberg told host Joe Rogan on an August 2022 episode of The Joe Rogan Experience. "After an hour or two of working out or rolling or wrestling with friends, or training with different folks, it's like now I'm ready to go solve whatever problem at work for the day."
According to Healthline, healing from ACL surgery takes at least nine months, including the initial post-surgery healing phase and physical therapy further down the line.
