“SEND ME LOCATION.”

With these three words, Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg responded to the challenge laid down by X owner Elon Musk that the two billionaires should have a cage fight. 

The tension between the two has been simmering for a long time before this. In 2016, a satellite of Zuckerberg’s was destroyed in a failed Space X rocket launch.

The two have also clashed over their differing opinions of AI, and Musk has been critical of Facebook for a number of years.

Musk officially threw down the gauntlet in June, telling Zuckerberg that he was “up for a cage fight”, following the announcement of Meta’s “Twitter killer” app Threads.

While Threads hasn’t yet lived up to the potential ascribed to it – the app announced earlier this month that it had lost over half of its users – its legacy, a titanic clash described by Dana White as being potentially “the biggest fight in the history of combat sports” remains.

However, all has not been smooth sailing in the organising of this gladatorial bout.

While on 22 June, Musk suggested the Vegas Octagon as a venue - which hosted seven of Conor McGregor’s nine pay-per-view UFC fights – Zuckerberg says that he hasn’t received any confirmation from the South African tech mogul that the fight will go ahead.

“I’m ready today. I suggested Aug 26 when he first challenged, but he hasn’t confirmed. Not holding my breath,” he said in a post on Threads.

Musk, for his part, has been inconsistent in his commitment to the event. While he was the one who initially suggested it, and was the one to suggest the venue, he has since cast doubt over proceedings owing to health concerns.

On Monday 7 June, he tweeted that he may need surgery before the fight can happen. 

With no word from either side since, it is unclear at present whether the public will be denied such a sought after spectacle. Nevertheless, it’s worth having a gander at our combatants.

The challengers

Who are our contenders, and what do they each bring to the table?

Over the last two years, Mark Zuckerberg has thrown himself headfirst into the world of mixed martial arts, particularly Brazilian jiu jitsu.

Popularised in the west by the Gracie family, a Brazilian martial arts dynasty, the sport has grown into a global phenomenon, being as it is one of the key components of mixed martial arts. 

The 39-year-old has been one of the main faces of the social media and tech industries for nearly 20 years. While he started as one of the owners and founders of Facebook, this has since expanded into the Meta empire, spanning Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.

If you communicate with someone online over the course of the day, you more than likely do so with one of his products.

Zuckerberg has taken to Brazilian jiu jitsu with the single-mindedness that has characterised his career. He has competed in numerous competitions in California over the past 18 months, often with success, and has most recently installed an octagon in his back garden to prepare for his greatest challenge: Elon Musk.

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A post shared by Mark Zuckerberg (@zuck)

 Zuckerberg’s opponent’s career, by contrast, has been slightly more eclectic.

The scion of a South African mining family, one of Musk’s first companies, the online bank X.com, merged with Confinity in 2000 to form PayPal.

After having been replaced as the company’s CEO by Peter Thiel in 2001, he went on to form Space X in 2002, becoming its CEO and chief engineer. 

In 2004, he became involved in Tesla, and in 2008 became the company’s CEO. He has since been involved in projects such as Neuralink – which aims to integrate human brains with AI – and the Boring Company, which plans to construct tunnels under US cities to alleviate traffic congestion.

In terms of his physical prowess, Musk is much more of an unknown quantity than Zuckerberg.

While the South African has a height and weight advantage over his American opponent, he is also 12 years older. It is also unclear if his combat readiness is in line with Zuckerberg’s.

While Musk has said that he is “lifting weights throughout the day, preparing for the fight”, he has been less clear on what fighting style he plans to employ.

He has intimated that he intends to utilise a “WWE”, or professional wrestling approach, and has also claimed that he at one time practices judo, Kyokushin karate, and “no rules street fighting”.

Despite his apparent disadvantage when it comes to Zuckerberg in ability, he has remained committed to the bout.

It’s a civilized form of war. Men love war.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 6, 2023

Musk has stated that it will be live-streamed on X, née Twitter, and that all proceeds will be donated to a “charity for veterans”. 

Zuckerberg hit back, asking “shouldn’t we use a more reliable platform that can actually raise money for charity?”.

However, as of now, an actual time, date and location for the fight has not been set.  

Whether or not the clash does go ahead, one thing is for certain: both of these men may have far too much time on their hands.