According to coverage from The New York Times, BBC, CBS News, Bleacher Report, Business Insider, TMZ Sports and The Guardian, among others, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and X Corp (formerly Twitter) owner Elon Musk may have a Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) cage fight coming up.
While most initially assumed that the rumors were nothing more than a publicity stunt (which they still could be), Musk announced on Friday, August 11 that he and Zuckerberg have agreed to terms on an MMA fight.
The fight will be managed by my and Zuck’s foundations (not UFC).
Livestream will be on this platform and Meta. Everything in camera frame will be ancient Rome, so nothing modern at all.
I spoke to the PM of Italy and Minister of Culture. They have agreed on an epic location.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 11, 2023
He also tweeted that all proceeds from the bout will be donated to veterans.
Talks of a fight stem from a series of social media posts back in June, during which the two billionaires mocked one another on their rival social media platforms.
The hype has made it all the way to Wikipedia, where an article titled “Elon Musk vs. Mark Zuckerberg” was created on August 12. It gives a detailed background on the tech moguls’ testy—at times, sophomoric—public relationship. Politico has provided a timeline backdrop to the rivalry as well.
Zuckerberg, 39, is apparently an aspirational MMA fighter. According to CNN, he has won Jiu-Jitsu tournaments and, according to Fortune, claimed in May to have completed the “Murph Challenge” workout in just under 40 minutes.
On June 27, Musk, who is 52 years old, accepted an invitation to train with UFC legend Georges St-Pierre. On July 11, UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya tweeted a photo of himself and UFC featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski training with Zuckerberg. On August 6, Musk said that he has been lifting weights to prepare for the fight.
A date and location for the fight have not been confirmed, and Musk has posted on X that he had a shoulder problem requiring minor surgery with a recovery period of “a few months”. So, if the contest actually happens, it’s still a ways off. Stay tuned.
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Photos courtesy of Twitter, Wikipedia