Alex Pereira is known to be popular with celebrities, and even had one A-List visitor in his dressing room moments before his latest main event.
The Brazilian is currently moments away from making the walk for his UFC 313 headliner against Magomed Ankalaev. Despite needing to lock in and get focused for what is his fourth light-heavyweight title defence in 11 months, he had no problem allowing Mark Zuckerberg backstage with him.
Zuckerberg has trained with Pereira in the past, and is known to be a massive fan of MMA and in particular jiu-jitsu where he trains with top stars including Mikey Musumeci. He has even brought on Dana White, CEO of the UFC, as a board member at Meta.
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Mark Zuckerberg visits Alex Pereira before UFC 313
Alex Pereira doesn’t even appear to be somebody too concerned by his goings on, particularly when he is locked in for a fight. This often makes for funny photo ops, where he looks unbothered despite being in varying outlandish situations.
This seemed to be the case again earlier tonight as he, while fully dressed and ready for a world title fight, posed for photos with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. The pair have met before to film content, but it remains to be seen what advice was given by the entrepreneur.
Pereira is now just moments away from fighting the toughest test of his light-heavyweight title run in the number one contender Ankalaev. He has been knocking out all comers over the past year, but faces a tough grappler this time around with the infamous Dagestani style.
Alex Pereira may have been struck by ‘Mark Zuckerberg curse’
However, while the photo op may seem relatively harmless to most fans, there are a large amount that are concerned about the little known ‘Zuckerberg curse’. The Meta boss is not dissimilar to rapper Drake in that he likes to meet fighters and pose with them before big events.
However, like Drake, it seems that anybody who poses for a photo with the Meta boss loses their next fight and eventually goes on to multiple stoppage defeats. He famously trained alongside Alexander Volkanovski and Israel Adesanya when they were champions, just months before their string of losses.
And even at the lower level, Zuckerberg has been spotted next to PFL star Khai Wu, who lost his debut in the promotion shortly after. The comments under his photo with Pereira were not positive, with many simply replying ‘Nooooo’, and insisting that ‘Poatan’ must break the curse.
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