Musk Gives Update on Cage Fight With Zuckerberg

(Left) Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg at the Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, on July 8, 2021. (Right) SpaceX and electric car maker Tesla CEO Elon Musk speaks during an event at the Vivatech technology startups and innovation fair at the Porte de Versailles exhibition center in Paris on June 16, 2023. Kevin Dietsch, Joel Saget/Getty Images

The much-hyped cage fight between Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Tesla CEO Elon Musk will be streamed on Twitter, the social media platform that Mr. Musk recently rebranded as “X,” Mr. Musk has declared.

While it’s not clear when (and perhaps even if) the matchup will take place between Mr. Musk, who has little formal martial arts training, and Mr. Zuckerberg, who has won several medals in a recent jiu-jitsu competition, both billionaires appear serious to duke it out.

Most recently, Mr. Musk took to social media on Sunday to announce that the “Zuck v Musk fight will be live-streamed on X.”

He added that all the proceeds will go to a charity for veterans.

SpaceX, Twitter and electric car maker Tesla CEO Elon Musk attends an event during the Vivatech technology startups and innovation fair at the Porte de Versailles exhibition centre in Paris on June 16, 2023. Joel Saget/AFP via Getty Images

Mr. Zuckerberg responded to Mr. Musk’s remarks on his own recently-launched social media platform Threads by taking a jab at X.

“Shouldn’t we use a more reliable platform that can actually raise money for charity?” the Meta CEO quipped.

The public rivalry between the two tech CEOs perhaps dates as far back as 2016, when Mr. Zuckerberg expressed dismay that Mr. Musk’s company SpaceX failed to launch a Facebook satellite that was meant to provide internet connectivity in Africa.

Mr. Musk would later apologize for the incident, in which his SpaceX rocket carrying Facebook’s new satellite blew up, destroying Facebook’s payload too. But the rivalry between the two has only risen in the years since.

More recently, when reports emerged in June that Mr. Zuckerberg was working on a Twitter competitor that would later be officially rolled out as Threads, Mr. Musk first challenged the Meta chief to a cage fight.

Mr. Zuckerberg, who’s been training in Brazilian jiu-jitsu since 2022 and has already won medals in a tournament, promptly accepted.

Mark Zuckerberg speaks in New York City on Oct. 25, 2019. Drew Angerer/Getty Images

‘Not Holding My Breath’

While questions have swirled whether the two tech titans are truly serious about the cage fight, UFC President Dana White has started hyping a potential matchup between the two.

“Talked with Mark and Elon last night, both guys are absolutely dead serious about this,” Mr. White said in a June 22 interview with TMZ. “They both said, ‘Yeah, we’ll do it.’ They both want to do it.”

Dana White, president of the UFC, speaks at a news conference after the UFC 229 mixed martial arts event in Las Vegas on Oct. 6, 2018. AP Photo/John Locher, File

Mr. White said he expects that a Mr. Musk vs. Mr. Zuckerberg cage match “would be the biggest fight ever in the history of the world.”

“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 fighting fan to be interested in this fight. Everybody would want to see it,” the UFC president added.

In an apparent bid to show he’s determined to go through with the fight, Mr. Musk said in a social media post on Sunday that he’s been doing strength training regularly in preparation for the match.

“Am lifting weights throughout the day, preparing for the fight,” Mr. Musk wrote.

“Don’t have time to work out, so I just bring them to work,” added the famously busy entrepreneur.

This prompted a reaction from Mr. Zuckerberg, who on Threads wrote, “I’m ready today. I suggested Aug. 26 when he first challenged, but he hasn’t confirmed.”

“Not holding my breath,” Mr. Zuckerberg continued. “I love this sport and will continue competing with people who train no matter what happens here.”

But Mr. Musk appears to be serious enough about the match that he accepted an offer to help him prepare for the fight from decorated UFC fighter Georges St-Pierre.

‘He’s Very Tough’

As talk of the matchup became increasingly serious, Mr. St-Pierre jumped into fray, and in a social media post, offered to help Mr. Musk compete against his younger and more practiced opponent.

“@elonmusk I’m a huge fan of yours and it would be an absolute honor to help you and be your training partner for the challenge against Zuckerberg,” Mr. St-Pierre said in a Twitter post on June 24.

Mr. Musk accepted and the two trained together, with Mr. St-Pierre later telling TSN that Mr. Musk was tough and surprisingly strong.

“That was a great experience, I have a lot of fun with Elon,” Mr. St-Pierre said. “We trained together and what I can say is that he’s much stronger than the average man and he’s very tough.”

“He had a judo background, and we know from his history: when he fixes his goal, he’s unstoppable,” Mr. St-Pierre added. “And that’s the quality of a very good fighter. If you take that into fighting, that’s the most important thing.”

“Because in combat ... things aren’t always easy as you expect, there’s always obstacles.”