Elon Musk likes to trash-talk from behind the safety of his keyboard. So it came as a surprise to the world when he agreed to honor his dare and meet Mark Zuckerberg in a cage match.
When the jujitsu-trained Meta boss refused to let him off the hook so easily, Musk agreed this weekend that the fight he started by throwing down a gauntlet back in June would indeed move forward with proceeds going to charity. Yet only a day later, Tesla’s alpha male suddenly complained about a return of back pain, claiming he couldn’t agree on a fixed date because he may need surgery.
Now Musk appears to be backpedaling further after he supported a suggestion from Chris Anderson—head of talk-hosting organization TED—that the tech billionaires instead participate in a verbal face-off.
“Here’s a better idea: a cage match debate,” Anderson said in a post on Musk’s X platform, adding they could spar over how best to “build an amazing future.”
Musk, who claimed to be bringing weights into the office to train, decided Anderson’s proposal wasn’t so bad. “That sounds like a good idea too,” Musk responded, adding debate was a “noble sport” and “really fighting” when you get down to it.
That sounds like a good idea too.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 8, 2023
This is really fighting as (I believe) a noble sport. We also hope, with humility, to express our admiration for those who have fought before for noble causes.
Representatives for Musk and Zuckerberg did not respond to Fortune’s requests for comment.
The duo have been publicly critical of each other’s business decisions in recent months. Before his Twitter acquisition closed, Musk had argued that Zuckerberg held too much power in the social media world. Zuckerberg’s Meta then launched Threads—a rival to the platform Musk bought for $44 billion last year.
Zuckerberg has suggested Threads could be a serious contender to dethrone Twitter as a social media platform, arguing that Musk had blown his chance to establish it as the go-to conversation app.
For his part, Musk has frequently lashed out at Zuckerberg and Threads, saying the platform “makes no sense” and accusing his rival of “cheating.”
He has also labeled Zuckerberg a “cuck”—an insult used in online alt-right circles that typically describes a submissive beta male who prefers the company of dominant women.
“I propose a literal dick-measuring contest,” the Tesla CEO followed, in a comment his ex-partner said was actually her idea to begin with.
Musk’s parents have both intervened on his behalf, hoping to stop the fight
Musk’s support for a noble debate with Zuckerberg marks a sharp U-turn from his previous enthusiasm for the pair to trade physical blows.
Zuckerberg, meanwhile, has appeared much less confident that the pair will ever meet in the cage.
Taking to Threads—his own rival platform to Musk’s X—the Facebook founder said Musk still hadn’t confirmed a date for the fight.
“I’m ready today,” he said. “I suggested Aug. 26 when he first challenged, but he hasn’t confirmed. Not holding my breath.”
Over the weekend, Musk insisted that the fight was still on—but he remained noncommittal. “I’m getting an MRI of my neck and upper back tomorrow,” he said. “May require surgery before the fight can happen. Will know this week.”
While Musk has warned he may not be good to go, owing to a possible operation “to strengthen the titanium plate holding [his] C5/C6 vertebrae together,” Zuckerberg has undergone an intense fitness transformation over the past few years. He took up the martial art of Brazilian jujitsu and participated in the grueling military-grade Murph Challenge.
While the hypothetical MMA fight was hyped as the “biggest fight ever in the history of the world” and expected to raise billions of dollars for charity, there are two people who would be thrilled to hear it’s no longer going ahead: Musk’s parents.
His estranged father, Errol Musk, has spoken out about how his progeny’s participation in the fight would put him in a lose-lose situation, and his mom also made it clear that she wasn’t on board with the plan.
In fact, Maye Musk was the first to suggest that Musk and Zuckerberg should settle their differences using words rather than fight each other.
“A verbal fight only. Three questions each. The funniest answers win. Who agrees?” she said after her son threw his support behind the cage fight idea. “Fight with words only. In armchairs. Four feet apart.”
That’s arguably too far for Zuckerberg’s fists to reach.
