Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg: “time to move on” from cage fight against X chief Elon Musk

“It’s time to move on” from the much talked about charity cage fight between Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his X counterpart Elon Musk, according to Zuckerberg himself.

The billionaire have been goading each other online for several weeks in the midst of Meta setting up their Threads social networking service, initially as a rival and alternative to Twitter, which Musk has since renamed X.

Where and when would the Zuckerberg vs Musk cage fight take place?

The Tesla CEO revealed on Friday that he had spoken to Italy’s prime minister and culture minister about holding the fight at “an epic location” in Italy which would mimic ancient Rome and that the event, which is expected to raise millions for charities if it goes ahead, would be managed by Musk and Zuckerberg’s respective foundations, rather than the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) mixed martial arts (MMA) promotion company.

It seems though, that the pair are fighting about the fight, with the Meta supremo denying those claims, saying that no date or venue had been agreed and that a professional organisation “like the UFC” was needed to “pull this off well”. UFC president Dana White has already confirmed his interest in assisting with the organisation of the fight.

Billionaires preparing to battle one another

Both Zuckerberg and Musk have been preparing to face each other on an as-yet-unknown date, with the former, an amateur mixed martial arts fighter and also trained in jiu-jitsu, recently spotted training with Israel Adesanya and Alexander Volkanovski, two world-class UFC fighters.

Musk, by contrast, is a self-proclaimed street fighter but has also been seen preparing with Brazilian Jiu-jitsu black belt Lex Fridman.

Why did Zuckerberg say Musk “wasn’t serioius” about the fight?

Now, however, Zuckerberg has cast serious doubt over whether Musk is actually up for the challenge, revealing on Threads that the X chief had been in touch with him and had been looking for excuses for the event not to go ahead.

“I think we can all agree Elon isn’t serious and it’s time to move on. I offered a real date.

“Dana White offered to make this a legit competition for charity. Elon won’t confirm a date, then says he needs surgery, and now asks to do a practice round in my backyard instead.

“If Elon every gets serious about a real date and official event, he knows how to reach me. Otherwise, time to move on. I’m going to focus on competing with people who take the sport seriously”.

Musk isn’t normally one to go into hiding. Expect a retort soon.