Fighting talk from Elon Musk, then a Zucker punch

Billionaires Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg are threatening to duke it out in a cage fight.

Elon Musk, left, said: ‘I almost never work out, except for picking up my kids and throwing them in the air’. Mark Zuckerberg does Brazilian jiu-jitsu

In the red corner is a tech billionaire who runs one of the biggest social media companies in the world. In the blue corner is … ­another one.

Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg have agreed to fight each other in a “cage match”, with Las Vegas suggested as a possible venue for the bout.

Mr Musk, 51, who formally acquired Twitter last year and until recently was its chief executive, has regularly complained about Mr Zuckerberg, 39, his company Meta and its supposedly aggressive expansion plans.

“I’m sure Earth can’t wait to be exclusively under Zuck’s thumb with no other options,” he wrote on Wednesday to his 144 million followers on Twitter.

This tweet prompted a light-hearted response from one of Mr Musk’s followers warning that the South African “better be careful” because Mr Zuckerberg does Brazilian jiu-jitsu.

“I’m up for a cage fight if he is,” Mr Musk replied.

Later on Instagram, a platform owned by Meta, Mr Zuckerberg simply wrote back: “Send me location.” Replying to a story that reported Mr Zuckerberg’s comments, Mr Musk simply said: “Vegas Octagon.”

It is thought he is referring to the UFC Apex stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada, which is normally reserved for the biggest mixed martial arts fights. It features an eight-sided fighting area known as the Octagon, a fenced-in design surrounding a mat within.

No date has been set for any potential fight. Mr Musk has been known to enjoy publicity stunts not necessarily intended to be taken seriously. He once said that his dog was the new chief executive of Twitter and challenged Russian President Vladimir Putin to “single combat” – and “the stakes are Ukraine”.

Mr Musk and Mr Zuckerberg’s long-running feud began in 2016, when the former’s SpaceX rocket destroyed Facebook’s Amos-6 satellite during a test on a launchpad in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

They have publicly disagreed over the future role of artificial intelligence, with Mr Musk saying that Mr Zuckerberg’s understanding of the technology is “limited”. Their frosty relationship was not improved in 2020 when Mr Musk tweeted: “#DeleteFacebook. It’s lame.”

Nick Peet, a combat-sports journalist, said there would only be one winner: “Zuckerberg all day. He’s 12 years younger. He is a lot smaller. I think he’s 5ft 7in, Elon’s probably around 6ft. And Elon’s probably got a couple of stone in weight on him.”

He also cited the Meta chief executive’s superior fighting credentials: Mr Zuckerberg took up Brazilian jiu-jitsu during the pandemic, saying he was attracted to the sport’s “primal nature”.

In March, he competed in his first competition in Redwood City, California, winning a gold and silver medal for his Guerrilla team in the featherweight division. Vijay Hanumantha Raju, a 33-year-old software engineer, who lost against Mr Zuckerberg in the tournament, later said the tech billionaire had access to the best coaches and “he obviously has been doing a bunch of MMA training”.

Mr Zuckerberg was defeated in a jiu-jitsu bout this month by a hospital storekeeper who choked him until he was forced to tap out, the signal for fighters who are ready to concede defeat.

Last month, Mr Zuckerberg took part in the “Murph challenge” in memory of the late Navy SEAL Lieutenant Michael P. Murphy, who was killed in Afghanistan. It involves running a mile, then doing 100 pull-ups, 200 push-ups and 300 squats, then running another mile — all while wearing a 9kg weighted vest.

He completed the challenge in 39 minutes 58 seconds, reportedly putting him in the top 1 per cent of those who took part.

Mr Musk, on the other hand, has little to boast about in the training stakes. “I almost never work out, except for picking up my kids and throwing them in the air,” he wrote. But he said he did have an attacking move called “the Walrus” in which “I just lie on you and you can’t get away and you’re stuck”.

However, the Tesla founder and chief executive revealed on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast in 2020 that he trained as a child in judo, karate and tae-kwondo, and briefly took up Brazilian jiu-jitsu and weight training as an adult. “To be totally frank, I wouldn’t exercise at all, if I could,” Mr Musk said. “I prefer not to exercise.”

Asked if the fight were genuine, a Meta spokesman said: “The story speaks for itself.”

Mr Musk was contacted for comment.

THE TIMES