Elon Musk Reveals He Will Start Training Soon if $1 Billion Fight Takes Shape
Elon Musk said on Saturday he will start training if the mixed martial arts cage fight he has provoked with fellow billionaire media mogul Mark Zuckerberg takes shape. Twitter owner Musk tweeted on Tuesday he was up for a cage match in Las Vegas with Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook parent Meta, who has trained in jiu-jitsu.
‘I haven’t started training yet. So if this does happen, I will,’ Musk said in a talk on Twitter with Ashlee Vance, the author of a book on Musk and the space race. The match ‘might actually happen’, Musk said while attending a birthday party in Europe, adding it was possible that it could go badly if Zuckerberg takes the match seriously.
What initially seemed to be a joke by Musk on Tuesday when he tweeted ‘I’m up for a cage match if he is lol,’ turned more serious when Zuckerberg replied: ‘Send me location.’ Every day since then, talk has ramped up, with various MMA stars offering to train the Twitter boss ahead of the bout.
UFC chief Dana White also weighed in and revealed he has spoken to both men about the potential fight, noting: ‘Both guys are absolutely dead serious about this. They both want to do it. Mark Zuckerberg hit me up 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 dead serious.”
The record for a pay-per-view combat sporting event remains the awkward boxing match between ring legend Floyd Mayweather and novice pugilist Conor McGregor, which generated $600 million in revenue in 2017.
But White believes a bout between Musk and Zuckerberg could bring in over $1BILLION, making it the biggest fight of all time. ‘It would break all pay-per-view records,’ White said. ‘These guys would raise, you know, hundreds of millions of dollars for charity and, you know, you don’t have to be a big fight fan to be interested in this fight. Everybody would want to see it.’
Zuckerberg is actually trained in mixed martial arts. The Facebook founder posted about completing his first jiu-jitsu tournament last month. In response to Zuckerberg’s location request on Wednesday, Musk proposed the Vegas Octagon. He then joked about his fighting skills and workout routine, suggesting that the fight may not be serious.
‘I have this great move that I call ”The Walrus,” where I just lie on top of my opponent & do nothing,’ Musk wrote. Whether or not Musk and Zuckerberg actually make it to the ring has yet to be seen – especially as Musk often tweets about action prematurely or without following through.
But, even if their cage match agreement is all a joke, the banter gained attention. An endless chain of memes and posts to ‘choose your fighter’ have sprung up in response. ‘The story speaks for itself,’ a Meta spokesperson said in a statement to The Associated Press. Zuckerberg has not commented further.
Despite the uncertainty of a cage match actually happening, bids are already being placed for a projected winner. DraftKings’ projected odds stood at 140+ for Musk and -160 for Zuckerberg on Thursday.
