The possibility of Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk squaring off in an MMA cage match is just a joke. Right?
Over the weekend, the braggadocio continued apace between two of the world’s richest men about a physical fight — probably in jest, but possibly not.
Musk, the owner of X (née Twitter) and CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, stirred the pot about a cage match, claiming in an Aug. 6 post, “Zuck v Musk fight will be live-streamed on 𝕏. All proceeds will go to charity for veterans.”
Zuckerberg responded on meta’s recently launched Threads app, taking a dig at X/Twitter. “Shouldn’t we use a more reliable platform that can actually raise money for charity?” he wrote Sunday.
The meta CEO followed up with this: “I’m ready today. I suggested Aug. 26 when [Musk] first challenged, but he hasn’t /confirm/ied. Not holding my breath.” Over on X, Musk claimed the exact date of the cage match “is still in flux. I’m getting an MRI of my neck & upper back tomorrow. May require surgery before the fight can happen. Will know this week.” (According to Musk, he injured his back in an exhibition sumo match several years ago.) So
In response to someone who asked whether it was “mutually agreed” their possible MMA match would be livestreamed on X, Zuck said, “More like ‘funding secured.'” That’s a reference to Musk’s August 2018 tweet in which he wrote, “Am considering taking Tesla private at $420. Funding secured” — a post that got him into trouble with the SEC and elicited a Tesla shareholder lawsuit; a jury cleared Musk and Tesla of securities-fraud charges in the case earlier this year.
The beef started when Musk responded to a June 20 Twitter thread mocking Zuckerberg, with Musk writing, “I’m up for a cage match if he is lol.” The jibe was in response to a user saying Zuckerberg “does the ju jitsu [sic] now,” a reference to his recent medaling in a Brazilian jiujitsu tournament. Zuckerberg fired back that day in an Instagram Story with a screenshot of Musk’s cage-match tweet and the caption, “Send Me Location.”
The feud between the two mega-billionaires has simmered on their respective social platforms. Responding to a user’s tweet showing Zuckerberg LOL’ing at the suggestion by burger chain Wendy’s (in a post on Threads) that the meta CEO should “go to space to really make him mad,” Musk on July 9 carped, “Zuck is a cuck.” Musk then for some reason suggested “a literal dick-measuring contest” between the two men.
Meanwhile, Musk has displayed consternation over Threads. The day after the launch of Threads, attorneys representing Twitter (X Corp.) sent a cease-and-desist letter to Zuckerberg alleging meta “engaged in systematic, willful and unlawful misappropriation of Twitter’s trade secrets and other intellectual property” and “deliberately assigned” ex-Twitter employees to rapidly develop Threads. (meta says none of the members of Threads engineering team is a former Twitter employee.)
“Competition is fine, cheating is not,” Musk complained in a tweet.
While Zuckerberg (39) seems willing to suit up in the octagon for real, it’s unclear how serious Musk (52) — who loves to play the troll — is about an IRL brawl. “I have this great move that I call ‘The Walrus,’ where I just lie on top of my opponent & do nothing,” Musk posted in June.
Am going with @WWE as my fighting style https://t.co/CggZ7HhrPQ
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 7, 2023
Also note that in March 2022, less than a month after Russia invaded Ukraine, Musk wrote, “I hereby challenge Владимир Путин [Vladimir Putin] to single combat / Stakes are Україна [Ukraine].”
For what it’s worth, oddmakers favor Zuckerberg in a hypothetical MMA match. DraftKings recently handicapped a potential fight between the two, giving Zuckerberg (-160) the edge over Musk (+140). Zuckerberg is not only younger than Musk, he has “taken part in an intensive challenge in which he ran a mile, completed 100 pull-ups, 200 press-ups and 300 squats, before running a further mile, all while wearing a 9kg weighted vest” while Musk “dabbles in taekwondo, karate, judo & jiujitsu,” DraftKings’ director of race and Sports operations Johnny Avello wrote in a blog post.
