Tech billionaires Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg are set to do battle in a cage match that is sure to be one for the ages. The fight, which will be held under UFC rules, is expected to cost $100 to watch on pay-per-view and could generate more than $1 billion in revenue.
Dana White, president of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), confirmed that he has spoken to both Musk and Zuckerberg about their recent social media feud. The duo is “absolutely dead serious” about squaring off at the UFC Octagon in Nevada, U.S., he said.
The feud began when Musk, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO, challenged Zuckerberg to a “cage match” on Twitter, and the Meta founder and CEO accepted. Musk, who owns Twitter, was reacting to reports that Zuckerberg planned to launch a rival social media platform.
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‘Greatest fight in history’
“Talked with Mark and Elon…both guys are absolutely dead serious about this,” White told TMZ Sports last week. “Mark Zuckerberg hit me up first and said ‘is he serious?’” When the promoter later reached out to Musk, the billionaire responded: “Yeah, I’m dead serious.”
White said that he is already in the early stages of planning the cage match and expects the fight to eclipse all the other fights in history.
“This would be the biggest fight ever in the history of the world, bigger than anything that’s ever been done. It would break all pay-per-view records,” he said.
Musk and Zuckerberg, two of the world’s richest men with a combined net worth of $335 billion, have a history of trading barbs. Each has taken turns insulting the other’s businesses. Musk once called Facebook “lame” and tweeted in May that Meta’s WhatsApp “cannot be trusted.” He also said earlier this year, “Instagram makes people depressed.”
Zuckerberg criticized Tesla’s production problems and the failed launch of a Facebook satellite in 2016.
“I’m deeply disappointed to hear that SpaceX’s launch failure destroyed our satellite that would have provided connectivity to so many entrepreneurs,” he said at the time.
The latest brawl was sparked by reports that Zuckerberg’s Meta planned to launch its own version of Twitter. Musk responded to the reports on Twitter saying, “I’m up for a cage match if he is lol.” Zuckerberg accepted and replied: “Send me location…”
I’m up for a cage match if he is lol
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 21, 2023
Billion-dollar match
While a typical UFC pay-per-view event commands a price of $80, Dana White revealed he would charge $100 for the Elon Musk- Mark Zuckerberg spectacle. The promoter is confident that fans would be willing to pay a premium to watch the fight.
White said the previous biggest pay-per-view event in history was the 2017 fight between Conor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather, which generated over $600 million in revenue. But the billionaire brawl involving Musk and the Zuck would bring in more.
“I think it triples [Mayweather-McGregor]. There’s no limit on what this thing can make,” he said.
“I don’t think either one of them needs the money. These guys would raise hundreds of millions of dollars for charity,” White added.
The UFC president did not say when the fight would take place. “If these guys are serious, I make fights that people want to see,” he said. “That’s what I do for a living.”
Musk vs Zuckerberg: who will win?
Cage fighting is considered a relatively dangerous sport – a full-contact sport where two fighters compete using different types of fighting techniques within a cage.
In the case of the two tech billionaires, Musk is a former martial artist and Zuckerberg is a black belt in taekwondo.
Health and fitness experts at Total Shape analyzed both Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg’s personal diets and fitness routines to predict who would be most likely to win the planned cage match. The experts looked at things like their height, weight, the food they eat and exercise regimes.
Zuckerberg’s go-to-food is reportedly high protein grilled chicken, and he is more athletic. Musk is 12 years older than Zuckerberg and prefers to “eat tasty food and live a shorter life.” He eats octopus, a bowl of ice cream, eight oatmeal biscuits, and a donut for breakfast.
On a recent episode of “The Joe Rogan Experience” podcast, Musk said, “The older I get, the harder [it is] to stay lean, that’s for sure.” He has said he doesn’t “love running” and that “I wouldn’t exercise at all if I could.”
In an email shared with MetaNews a spokesperson at Total Shape gave their verdict on the blockbuster bout:
“Zuckerberg is more about hiking and high endurance activities that naturally build a leaner body. In contrast, Musk is more in favor of strength training and will have power in his corner. Therefore, when it comes down to who would win, it is agility vs strength,” they said.
“Placing both titans in a cage, Mark Zuckerberg would have the edge of agility and endurance needed to take Musk down, given Musk isn’t able to forcefully strike him earlier on in the fight,” the spokesperson added.
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