Ready to Rumble? In any case, tech billionaire Elon Musk still seems to be sticking to the idea of a cage fight against Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. On the night of Sunday he announced on Twitter, Musk has since renamed his online service X, that the fight should be broadcast live on the platform. Proceeds will be donated to former US military personnel. He did not give any further details. Initially, there was no reaction from Zuckerberg – although it was already the dead of night in San Francisco at the time.
Zuckerberg, 39, trains with martial arts trainers and is visibly fitter than Musk, 52. The latter wrote on Sunday night that he now lifts weights at work because he doesn’t have time to train. Among other things, Musk is the head of the electric car manufacturer Tesla and continues to make many decisions on the Twitter service he bought for $44 billion.
The prospect of the fight first surfaced in June. Musk challenged Zuckerberg, who agreed. After initial publicity, radio silence followed, leaving many doubting that the tech billionaires would come together in the ring. In the meantime, however, the “New York Times” reported that the fight was actually being prepared. Zuckerberg wrote on Meta’s Twitter Alternative Threads a few days ago that he now has an octagon in his backyard – mixed martial arts fights are fought in an octagonal cage.
Musk and Zuckerberg’s relationship has been strained for several years. According to media reports, one of the triggers was that Facebook’s expensive first satellite was destroyed in the explosion of a rocket from Musk’s space company SpaceX in 2016. The Facebook group then gave up the satellite plans. Musk later took many opportunities to tease Zuckerberg, such as when he claimed his understanding of artificial intelligence was limited.
On Sunday night, when asked what the fight should be about, Musk wrote: “It’s a civilized form of war, men love war.” Zuckerberg commented on Threads a few weeks ago that he loves martial arts: He’s “so raw” and lets him express his competitive self.
