Ultimate Fighting Championship

Mark Zuckerberg’s jiu-jitsu or Elon Musk’s street-fight ‘walrus’ — Who will win?

June 23, 2023 Coin Telegraph

While Musk has a bigger frame and height advantage at 6’1, Zuckerberg has now been training in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu for nine months.

Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has emerged as a clear favorite among betters in a proposed “cage match” with Twitter owner and Tesla CEO Elon Musk.

In the 48 hours since the Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) challenge was issued by Musk, sports betting firms and odds providers have already delivered preliminary odds for the billionaire's bout.

If the fight actually eventuates, the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu-trained Zuckerberg has been marked with a 77% chance of winning the fight, according to Oddspedia, a sports betting platform that collates odds from several bookmakers.

Betting a dollar on Zuckerberg would potentially pay out $1.20 if he wins the fight, a bet on Musk could pay up to $4.00 if he wins.

*Mark Zuckerberg is heavily favored to beat Elon Musk in a potential bout. Source: Oddspedia.*

Zuckerberg, who stands at a slight height disadvantage at 5 feet, 7 inches (170 cm), has been a known BJJ practitioner since September 2022. In May, he managed to place first and second in two BJJ tournaments in a white belt lightweight division.

His progress even prompted positive reactions from some of the most influential figures in the Ultimate Fighting Championship, such as UFC boss Dana White and former UFC featherweight and lightweight champion Conor McGregor.

Online, several videos of Zuckerberg in training can be found.

Mark Zuckerberg training with BJJ world champion Mikey Musumeci pic.twitter.com/plE3CUpoP7
— Bloody Elbow (@BloodyElbow) June 17, 2023

Musk, on the other hand, is understood to have a bigger frame and height advantage and reportedly stands at 6 feet, 1 inch (185 cm). Not much else can be gleaned about his physical aptitude for combat, however, Musk recently said that he used to engage in “real hard-core street fights” in South Africa where he grew up.

He also recently posted that he eats a donut every morning and is “still alive,” if that makes a difference.

“I have this great move that I call “The Walrus”, where I just lie on top of my opponent & do nothing,” Musk jokingly said in a June 22 tweet.

Yup, that’s me
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 22, 2023

Talks of a potential physical fight between Musk and Zuckerberg first came about on June 21, when Musk said he’d be willing to share the cage with the Meta founder.

Zuckerberg responded on Instagram shortly after with “Send me location” — a popular phrase first uttered by former UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov.

*Zuckerberg’s response on Instagram to Musk’s Tweet. Source: The Verge*

Despite the high anticipation, many don’t expect the fight to actually happen, though it's not the first time that Musk and Zuckerberg have clashed.

In 2017, the billionaires engaged in a heated debate over artificial intelligence and its future implications.

Sharing a more optimistic view, Zuckerberg reportedly called out those who believe AI has the potential to create “doomsday scenarios” — events that could result in human extinction or completely end life on Earth.

Musk hit back, stating:

“I’ve talked to Mark about this. His understanding of the subject is pretty limited.”

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Supply chain thwacking: VeChain’s $100M sponsorship deal with UFC

June 10, 2022 Coin Telegraph

<div>Supply chain thwacking: VeChain's 0M sponsorship deal with UFC</div>

Coin Telegraph

The multi-year deal will see VeChain’s brand incorporated across multiple UFC marketing assets and reach an estimated 900 million households who watch the events worldwide.

Blockchain logistics firm the VeChain Foundation has signed a multi-year marketing partnership with the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) worth nearly $100 million, becoming the UFC’s first-ever Layer 1 blockchain partner.

The UFC is the largest promoter and event organizer for Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) and VeChain’s marketing assets and brand will be integrated across the UFC in live events, in-arena promotion, social media and other areas.

The deal is reportedly worth almost $100 million over a minimum five-year partnership according to an anonymous source quoted by Sports Business Journal. The UFC’s Senior Vice President of Global Partnerships Paul Asencio said the UFC’s sponsorship revenues are up 30% from an already record-breaking 2021 as a result of the deal.

The partnership kicks off immediately and VeChain’s assets will start appearing this Saturday June 11 during a UFC event held in Singapore.

VeChain is a business focused layer 1 ecosystem with an emphasis on supply chain tracking. The partnership sees a big shift from Vechain’s frugal first quarter. A financial report released in May shows the VeChain Foundation only spent around $4 million in Q1 with less than $660,000 spent on marketing but it did amass a huge $1.2 billion “war chest.”

VeChain said the partnership is “one of the deepest integrations within premier UFC assets of any sponsor in UFC history,” with the UFC estimating VeChain’s brand will reach 900 million television households in 175 countries.

As part of the deal, VeChain will own UFC's official fighter rankings titleship now called the “UFC Rankings Powered by VeChain” along with a branded presence inside the fighting ring at all events.

VeChain will further be promoted in-venue on prominent digital displays and both companies will create content for the UFC’s social media and other digital platforms which the UFC estimates will reach 200 million people.

An annual “Brand Ambassador fund” will also offer paid opportunities to UFC athletes participating in marketing activities for VeChain.

The UFC has long partnered blockchain and crypto companies, one of the UFC’s largest partnerships is its $175 million deal with Crypto.com which saw the crypto exchange become the UFC’s “Cryptocurrency Platform Partner” with fighters receiving fan bonuses in Bitcoin (BTC) through the partnership.

Crypto.com also released the first authorized UFC non-fungible token (NFT) collection in November 2021 and the UFC has continued to release more licensed NFTs with NFT developer Dapper Labs.

In March 2021 the crypto-only casino and sports betting platform Stake become UFC’s “First Official Betting Partner” for its Asia and Latin America markets.

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CRO price hits new high after Crypto.com wins Los Angeles’ Staples Center naming rights

November 18, 2021 Coin Telegraph

Binance

Crypto.com secures naming rights to the famous Staples Center in Los Angeles for $700 million.

Crypto.com’s native cryptocurrency, CRO, hit an all-time high of $0.593 on Nov. 18 after the company won the naming rights to Los Angeles’ Staples Center.

The cryptocurrency trading platform announced Tuesday night that it had paid $700 million to the Anschutz Entertainment Group to rename Staples Center to Crypto.com for the next 20 years. In doing so, it gained links with the downtown arena’s native sports franchises, including the National Basketball Association’s Los Angeles Lakers and Clippers, and the National Hockey League’s Kings franchise.

The deal should boost Crypto.coms public awareness, and this prompted traders to raise their bids for CRO, an intermediary settlement token across various assets inside the Crypto.com ecosystem.

CRO faces interim sell-off risks at peak

CRO surged by almost 27.50% a day after Crypto.com’s marketing deal and by up to another 20% the next day to reach a record high of $0.627, putting its market capitalization near $13.15 billion.

The Crypto.com token’s upside boom also had it close above its upward sloping resistance level, constituting a broad ascending channel pattern. Bears later returned to confirm the channel’s upper trendline as resistance, but bulls overpowered their attempts, causing the price to rebound higher.

*CRO/USD 3-day price chart featuring ascending channel pattern. Source: TradingView*

As a result, CRO entered price discovery, underscoring traders’ anticipation that its name on a popular sporting arena would boost its adoption and prices in tandem.

However, sell-off risks were there as its relative strength index entered overbought territory.

*CRO/USD daily price chart. Source: TradingView*

As a result, CRO showed signs of correction after peaking out on Thursday, suggesting that many traders decided to lock their profits in anticipation that the CRO price rally would not extend any further.

Based on the CRO’s historical price actions, its next leg lower is eyeing the 20-day exponential moving average (20-day EMA; the green wave) — at near $0.37 — as its next downside target. The wave has previously acted as an accumulation zone for CRO bulls after price dips.

Crypto meets sports

Founded in 2016, Crypto.com currently ranks as the world’s ninth-largest crypto spot exchange. In the previous 24 hours, its volumes came out to be $1.82 billion, compared to Binance’s — the top crypto exchange — $31 billion.

Cypto.com also has existing sponsorship deals with the Ultimate Fighting Championship, French football club Paris Saint-Germain, and the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers. The deals align with similar sponsorships between crypto companies and sports clubs, including BitMEX’s and Binance’s partnership with Italian Serie A clubs AC Milan and Lazio, respectively.

Meanwhile, FTX, whose native token, FTT, has surged by more than 750% this year, became the official crypto exchange brand for Major League Baseball following an announcement this year. The company also bought the naming rights for Miami Heat’s FTX Arena.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.