‘Time to Move On’: Zuckerberg Says Musk ‘Isn’t Serious’ About Cage Fight

(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

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on Aug. 14 that a brewing cage match between him and Tesla CEO Elon Musk is unlikely to happen because the latter doesn’t appear to be taking it seriously.

The two tech moguls accepted a cage fight challenge in late June. Mr. Musk posted that he was “up for a cage fight,” and Mr. Zuckerberg quickly responded by requesting a location for the match.

The actual date of their cage match has yet to be announced, although Mr. Musk has said that a live-stream of the event would be hosted on X, formerly known as Twitter, and Meta.

Meanwhile, Mr. Zuckerberg said that he had offered “a real date” for the fight and that UFC President Dana White had also agreed to make the fight official and use its proceeds for charity.

However, he said via his social media site, Threads, on Aug. 14, “Elon won’t confirm a date, then says he needs surgery, and now asks to do a practice round in my backyard instead.”

“I think we can all agree Elon isn’t serious, and it’s time to move on,” Mr. 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,” he wrote.

Mr. Musk, who is also the founder of spacecraft manufacturer SpaceX, hasn’t responded to Mr. Zuckerberg. He previously said on X that he spent three hours getting an MRI on Aug. 7. He said, “There is a problem with my right shoulder blade rubbing against my ribs, which requires minor surgery.”

“Recovery will only take a few months,” he said.

He added on Aug. 12 that the fight would be held in an “epic location” in Italy.

The event will be in an ancient Roman setting, and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has agreed on the location, he said.

Mr. Musk added that all the proceeds would go to Italy’s veterans and pediatric hospitals. He proposed that the fight not be organized by the UFC, instead being managed by the foundations of the two competitors.

Mr. Zuckerberg responded on Threads to Mr. Musk’s remarks with what is presumably a reference to X: “Shouldn’t we use a more reliable platform that can actually raise money for charity?”

Mr. Zuckerberg is trained in mixed martial arts and completed his first Brazilian jiu-jitsu tournament earlier this year. According to ESPN, Mr. Zuckerberg contended in the 149-pound category of the jiu-jitsu competition in May.

Mr. Musk, on the other hand, indicated his preference for World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) when it comes to his chosen combat style. He accepted a training offer from UFC fighter Georges St-Pierre to prepare for the highly anticipated match with Mr. Zuckerberg.

UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) Welterweight Champion Georges St-Pierre of Canada takes part in a training session in Issy-les-Moulineaux, France, on Nov. 7, 2011. JOEL SAGET/AFP/Getty Images

The public rivalry between the two tech CEOs 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. But the rivalry between the two has only intensified in the years since.

Mr. White in June told TMZ that the cage match between the two tech billionaires “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,” he added.

Angel Yuan and Tom Ozimek contributed to this report.