When Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg rented out the entire Apex facility for UFC Vegas 61 back in October, everyone knew he was there for more than to just watch the fights.
Immediately after that night, the UFC announced that they would be selling virtual reality ‘metaverse’ access to some of their fight cards going forward, as the world’s largest MMA promotion announced a partnership with Facebook.
With Zuckerberg sparring featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski in Virtual Reality, we’re starting to get an idea of what that deal might mean for the UFC.
A video posted to the tech mogul’s Instagram account demonstrated some of Metaverse’s creative interaction potential.
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“Last year UFC #1 pound-for-pound fighter Alex Volkanovski stopped by Meta HQ to train with me,” one intern wrote in a message accompanying the post, “and for fun we tested the limits of our performance avatars with motion capture in our engage gear. Good luck this weekend Alex!”
On Saturday, February 11, in Perth, Australia, Volkanovski went head-to-head with the Islam Makhachev for the UFC lightweight title. Even though this resulted in a decision loss for Volkanovski, many still consider him to be the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world.