Twitter owner and Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg have agreed to participate in a cage match.
Key Details
- Responding to a thread on Tuesday, Musk says, “I’m up for a cage match if he is”—“he” being Meta Platform CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
- Zuckerberg replied to the challenge on Instagram with a screenshot of the tweet and the text “Send me a location.”
- Musk replied again, tweeting that he wants to fight in the “Vegas Octagon.”
Why It’s News
The rivalry between the two tech giants, having reached this point of melodrama, comes in the aftermath of mutual antagonism between the two. Musk has repeatedly teased Zuckerberg from his Twitter account with jokes and insults. At the same time, the Facebook founder is well on its way to challenging Twitter’s market supremacy, The Verge notes.
As we previously reported, Zuckerberg is also in the process of developing a “Twitter-killer” app called “Threads.” Speaking at a June 8 meeting, Meta’s chief product officer Chris Cox told employees that their version of Twitter would be “sanely run” and it was their response to Twitter’s recent takeover.
The 51-year-old Musk seems to be treating the match as a joke. Musk subsequently tweeted that he does not work out much and that “the most entertaining outcome is the most likely.” He also tweeted about his signature boxing move, “I have this great move that I call ‘The Walrus,’ where I just lie on top of my opponent & do nothing.” The 39-year-old Zuckerberg, despite his smaller size, is a competitive mixed martial artist and jiu-jitsu fighter, giving him the likely advantage in a match.
It’s unlikely to transpire, but it does suggest that there is some genuine animosity between the two tech titans—as Musk mocks Zuckerberg and the Facebook head takes aim at Twitter.
The Octagon is the fenced-in competition mat used for Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) bouts. The UFC is based in Las Vegas, Nevada.