Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta, has declared that the ongoing chatter about a potential cage match with Elon Musk should come to an end. In a statement posted on his Threads account, Zuckerberg expressed skepticism about Musk’s seriousness regarding the fight, saying, “I think we can all agree Elon isn’t serious and it’s time to move on. I offered a real date. Dana White offered to make this a legit competition for charity. Elon won’t confirm a date, then says he needs surgery, and now asks to do a practice round in my backyard instead. If Elon ever gets serious about a real date and official event, he knows how to reach me. Otherwise, time to move on. I’m going to focus on competing with people who take the sport seriously.”
The rivalry between Zuckerberg and Musk escalated following the successful launch of Meta’s Threads, which emerged as a major competitor to X, formerly known as Twitter, in July.
Threads has drawn significant attention, garnering 30 million users on its first day, positioning itself as an alternative to Musk’s X platform.
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
Musk had previously claimed that the bout between the two tech titans would be live-streamed across X and Meta’s platforms, with a possible setting in Italy. In response, Zuckerberg urged the public to be cautious about believing Musk’s statements.
In his post, Zuckerberg noted, “I love this sport and I’ve been ready to fight since the day Elon challenged me. If he ever agrees on an actual date, you’ll hear it from me. Until then, please assume anything he says has not been agreed on.”
He further indicated that he was not holding out hope for Musk’s commitment, promising to share details about an actual fight when the time comes. “Not holding my breath for Elon, but I’ll share details on my next fight when I’m ready. When I compete, I want to do it in a way that puts a spotlight on the elite athletes at the top of the game. You do that by working with professional organizations like the UFC or ONE to pull this off well and create a great card,” Zuckerberg explained.
Musk responded to Zuckerberg’s remarks with a string of tweets. “If Zuck really wants a lesson in why there are weight categories in fighting so badly, I could just head over to his house next week and teach him a lesson he won’t soon forget… Otherwise, we will do it as soon as the arena in Italy is ready,” he wrote. “Or we could do both and consider next week just a practice session,” Musk added.
