Nigerian-born mixed martial arts (MMA) champion Israel Adesanya has posted images on Twitter of him training US tech billionaire Mark Zuckerberg.

It comes head of a potential cage match between the boss of Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, and his rival Elon Musk - the South African-born entrepreneur who now heads Twitter.

“We both have South Africans to deal with,” Adesanya quipped on Thursday, along with four photos of the duo training together.

The 33-year-old fighter, who moved to New Zealand as a child, is scheduled to take on South African Dricus du Plessis in a Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) middleweight fight in September.

Adesanya travelled to Mr Zuckerberg's residence in northern California on Saturday to start their training sessions, according to media reports.

Mr Zuckerberg, 39, and Mr Musk, 52, agreed to their cage bout over social media last month.

The date of the fight is yet to be confirmed but the pair are currently embroiled in another fight with Meta launching an alternative to Twitter last week.

The Threads app has so far signed up more than 70 million people.