Elon Musk fuels fight talk after UFC boss Dana White promotes potential fight with Mark Zuckerberg

Elon Musk is apparently ready to fight Mark Zuckerberg.

The polarizing billionaire posted some “fire” emojis on his Twitter page in response to a video of UFC founder Dana White calling the proposed cage match “the greatest fight in the history of the world.”

“I was talking to both Elon and Mark last night,” White said in a video that has since circulated on social media on Friday. “Both guys are absolutely serious about it. They both want to do it.

‘Mark Zuckerberg hit me first and said, ‘Is he serious?’

“And I said, ‘I don’t know, let me ask him,’ and I asked him and he said, ‘Yeah, I’m very serious.

In a now-viral back-and-forth seen on Twitter and Instagram this week, the two tech billionaires apparently agreed to a “caged match.”

UCF founder Dana White thinks the audience for a Musk-Zuckerberg fight would be huge

Zuckerberg (left) and Musk (right) are both serious about the fight, says White

White then defended his hyperbole saying, “It would break all pay-per-view records,” White said. ‘These guys would be raising, you know, hundreds of millions of dollars for charity and, you know, you don’t have to be a huge fight fan to be interested in this fight. Everyone would like to see it.

It all started when Musk, owner of Twitter, replied to a tweet on Meta that was preparing to post a new rival on Twitter called “Threads”. He questioned whether the world was becoming “exclusively under Zuck’s thumb with no other options” – but then a Twitter user jokingly warned Musk about Zuckerberg’s jiu jitsu training.

“I’m up for a cage match if he is lol,” Musk wrote late Tuesday.

Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook and Instagram’s parent company Meta Platforms, was quick to respond – and appeared to agree to Musk’s proposal.

“Send me the location,” Zuckerberg wrote in an Instagram Story on Wednesday night, which showed a screenshot of Musk’s tweet alongside another user’s response urging the Twitter owner to “start coaching”.

Zuckerberg is actually trained in mixed martial arts. The Facebook founder posted about the end of his first jiu jitsu tournament last month.

Zuckerberg posted about the end of his first jiu jitsu tournament last month

In a side-by-side comparison, Elon Musk has a height advantage, but is 11 years older

In response to Zuckerberg’s whereabouts request on Wednesday, Musk offered the Vegas Octagon. He then joked about his fighting skills and training routine, suggesting maybe the fight wasn’t serious.

“I have this great move I call ‘The Walrus,’ where I just lay down on my opponent and do nothing,” Musk wrote.

Whether or not Musk and Zuckerberg make it to the ring remains to be seen, especially since Musk often tweets about the action prematurely or without a follow-up. But, even though their cage match deal is a joke, the banter has caught the eye. An endless string of “pick your fighter” memes and posts have sprung up in response.

“The story speaks for itself,” a Meta spokesperson said in a statement to The Associated Press. Zuckerberg did not comment further.

Despite the uncertainty of a cage match actually happening, bids are already in the works for a projected winner. DraftKings projected odds were 140+ for Musk and -160 for Zuckerberg on Thursday.

The Associated Press has also reached out to Ultimate Fighting Championship, owner of the Octagon, and Twitter for statements. Twitter’s press email replied with a poo emoji, its standard automated response to reporters.