By: Kerry Ding
A few weeks ago, Elon Musk, the owner of Twitter, SpaceX, and Tesla, challenged Mark Zuckerberg, the owner of Facebook to a cage fight on Twitter. Right after seeing this, Mr. Zuckerburg sent a text to the Ultimate Fighting Championship‘s president, Dana White, and asked whether Elon Musk was serious about the cage fight. When Mr. White, called Elon Musk he said he was willing to give it a try. Ever since, both billionaires have been training for this battle of the century. Many people thought the Tech Billionaires weren’t serious but, on Tuesday, Mr. White said he was “on the phone with those two until 12:45 in the morning.” He added, “They both want to do it.”
The two fighters have agreed that this match should be an exhibition match. An exhibition match is a match with almost no effect on a player’s rank and includes almost no prize money. They also both agreed that the match should promote a charity that can receive donations. The location of the match most likely will be in Las Vegas, Nevada because the Billionaires preferred the location. However, Elon Musk has tweeted that the location of the match could be the Roman Colosseum.
Most of the Billionaires’ friends have approved of the match. However, many of their family members are not so convinced. For example, Maye Musk, Elon Musk’s mother has publicly expressed her disapproval on Twitter. She said, “Don’t encourage this match! ” One person close to Mr. Musk said that while he hated sports and didn’t appear to have the discipline to train regularly, no one could rule anything out with him (New York Times 2023).
All this controversy doesn’t change how rare of a moment this is. Never have two businessmen of this status gotten so close to fighting. This is also so intense because both men have considered each other competitors for years. Sometimes even frenemies, but they have never been true friends. Both have criticized each other about their projects which makes the cage fight a way the two billionaires can see which side is better. However, there is no concrete proof of this.
There are still a few practical problems in this fight. Most of the time fighters will be put in groups decided by weight. This is a problem as Mr. Musk is a whole 70 pounds heavier than Mr. Zuckerburg. On top of that, Elon Musk is another whole 13 years older than his opponent.
Another interesting thing to note is that Mr. Zuckerburg has been training his Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu skills. Mr. Zuckerburg started his journey of honing his combat skills 18 months ago when he built a training room in his garage. He and his friends would often spar in this room.
Zuckerburg also has been to his first official match in Redwood City in California. According to Mr. White, Mr. Zuckerburg was truly dedicated to his sport. He was always serious and took runs and other exercises. He loves challenging his colleagues to beat his records. This means that he probably is in a good fighting state. However, Elon Musk has barely exercised. He tweeted, “I almost never work out, except for picking up my kids & throwing them in the air”(Elon Musk June 2023). Also, according to Elon Musk, he said he has learned a few Japanese arts of fighting. Although once stated before, it is rare to see men of such status fighting in a cage match. Regardless, any way you slice it, this fight will go down in history.
Sources:
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/02/style/mark-zuckerberg-workout.html