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Ex-UFC fighter says he starred on reality show with man behind Cybertruck explosion

Updated January 6, 2025 - 11:27 am

Former UFC fighter Tim Kennedy said he competed 13 years ago in a reality TV show with Matthew Livelsberger, the suspected man behind the Cybertruck explosion at Trump Hotel International.

Police said Livelsberger shot himself in the head before the explosion, which injured seven people.

Kennedy wrote in an Instagram post on Friday that he and Livelsberger were on the History Channel (now History) show “Ultimate Soldier Challenge,” where members of military squads would compete against each other in a series of challenges.

“My partner in the competition was Matt Burg (aka Matt Livelsberger),” Kennedy wrote. “Last night when I saw old photos of him on the news, I put together that it was the same guy.

“He was a sincere, hard-working, talented, and competent Special Forces operator. I am flabbergasted and heartbroken to hear the news. None of this makes sense and I like many others are confused and want answers.”

Livelsberger was a military operations sergeant who, like Kennedy, served in the U.S. Army as a Green Beret, according to Metropolitan Police Department Sheriff Kevin McMahill.

Livelsberger was on active duty from January 2006 to March 2011, and joined the National Guard from March 2011 to 2012, according to an Army spokesperson. He was in the Army Reserve from July 2012 to December 2012, and entered the active duty Army in December 2012 and was an Army Special Operations solder.

Before his death, Livelsberger was on leave from the Army Special Operations Command, the Army said. McMahill said he was on leave in Colorado when the explosion occurred.

Livelsberger and Kennedy were featured on and won episode three of the show’s single season titled “U.S. Green Berets vs. Norwegian FSK,” which aired in March 2013.

Livelsberger said that before the start of the episode’s final challenge, which simulated an urban combat zone and required him to shoot at targets using a Ruger AR-556 rifle, he had “yet to run into (a firearm) that (he) could not pick up.”

“My first rifle was an M-4,” a rifle that the episode states is similar to the AR-556.

“It’s a personal thing that I like to do with my spare time.”

Contact Taylor Lane at tlane@reviewjournal.com.

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