We all saw this coming. The outcome was pretty much written in stone. But only now, almost two months of sniping each other over social media and undertaking rich guy versions of training camp, has Mark Zuckerberg thrown in the towel for his much-hyped “cage fight” against Elon Musk — citing the latter’s lack of commitment.
Early this morning, the Facebook (Meta) founder and recently-promoted blue belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu issued the following statement, ostensibly out of frustration, via Threads:
“I think we can all agree Elon isn’t serious and it’s time to move on. I offered a real date. [UFC President] 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.”
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Zuckerberg added: “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.”
Prior to this, Zucc had actually suggested a date (August 26th), as well as reiterated his readiness on multiple occasions.
“Not holding my breath for Elon, but I’ll share details on my next fight when I’m ready.”
Post by @zuckView on Threads
“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 orgs like the UFC or ONE to pull this off well and create a great card,” he said.
“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.”
Mark Zuckerberg has, in our minds, always been the overwhelming betting favourite. In fact, we’ll go as far as to say Zucc would absolutely crush Musk, considering he’s been actively training for years; occasionally logging a session with elite talent ranging from four-time BJJ world champion (coloured belts), five-time IBJJF black belt world champion, and reigning ONE flyweight submission grappling king Mikey Musumeci to reigning UFC champions Israel Adesanya and Alexander Volkanovski.
Despite this, Elon Musk has since resorted to schoolyard tactics by suggesting his rival billionaire is a “chicken” for walking away from what seems like a complete waste of time.
“He can’t eat at Chic-Fil-A because that would be cannibalism,” the C-suite memelord behind Tesla posted on X (Twitter); later uploading a screenshot of a text exchange between him and Zuckerberg wherein the former suggested a “practice bout” in the latter’s newly-installed backyard Octagon.
“Can’t wait to bang on his door tomorrow.”
This is the full message: pic.twitter.com/UzbKoIkFOc
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 13, 2023
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The fight will be managed by my and Zuck’s foundations (not UFC).
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 11, 2023
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.
Aside from the private self-invitation, the extent of Elon Musk’s dedication has simply been a vague outline regarding the pie-in-the-sky event’s management, would-be broadcast / livestream access, and location (see: above).
“This would be the biggest fight ever in the history of the world,” Dana White noted of the proposed Mark Zuckerberg vs Elon Musk “cage fight” on a previous occasion.
“Bigger than anything that has ever been done. It would break all pay-per-view records, these guys would raise hundreds of millions of dollars for charity. You don’t have to be a fight fan to be interested in this fight. Everybody would want to see it.”
White added: “The biggest fight of all time was [Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor], I just think it triples that, I think it triples what that did, there’s no limit on what that thing can make.”
Guess we’ll just have to wait for old Cybertruck chest Musk to name a date and lock ‘er in.
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