Zuckerberg suggests that Musk is not genuinely considering a cage fight.
Mark Zuckerberg has conveyed that Elon Musk’s intentions about holding a cage fight are not genuine and it’s time to move past the situation.
In a Threads post on his social media platform, Meta’s CEO mentioned that he had proposed a real date to Musk, but the rival entrepreneur had offered excuses. Earlier, on his messaging site X (formerly Twitter), Mr. Musk had indicated his willingness to fight as soon as Monday.
The billionaires initially agreed to the fight in June, generating substantial media attention. However, despite months of taunting each other, they have yet to finalize a date, raising doubts about the fight ever taking place. The introduction of Threads in July further complicated the verbal sparring, as the rival messaging app gained over 100 million sign-ups in under a week.
Though this number has decreased since then, X still maintains its lead with around 350 million users. Nonetheless, Mr. Musk has threatened legal action against Facebook for what he deems “unlawful misappropriation of Twitter’s trade secrets.”
Meta denies the claims.
Last week, Mr. Zuckerberg said he had proposed 26 August for the cage fight. Then in a twist on Friday, Italy’s culture minister said that he had spoken to Mr. Musk about hosting the showdown in the country as a charity event.
Mr. Musk suggested it would have “an ancient Rome theme”.
On Sunday, however, the Meta boss posted on Threads: “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.”
Responding to X, however, Mr. Musk called the Meta boss a “chicken”.
Earlier, Mr. Musk had posted a text message exchange on the messaging platform purportedly between himself and Mr Zuckerberg.
In it, he tells the Meta boss that he will be in Palo Alto, home to Meta’s headquarters, on Monday and that the fight could be held in Mr. Zuckerberg’s Octagon, which is the eight-sided ring in which cage fights are held.
Mr. Musk continued: “I have not been practicing much, apart from a brief bout with Lex Fridman [the computer scientist and podcast host] today.
“While I think it is very unlikely, l given our size difference, perhaps you are a modern day Bruce Lee and will somehow win.”
Elon Musk, 52, and Mark Zuckerberg, 39 are two of the world’s most high-profile technology billionaires.
The bizarre idea to fight each other started in June, when Mr Musk tweeted that he was “up for a cage fight” with Mr Zuckerberg.
The Meta boss, who already has mixed martial arts (MMA) training and has recently won jiu-jitsu tournaments, simply responded with “send me location”.
