White said he would ‘absolutely, positively’ put the fight together
Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk are “absolutely dead serious” about fighting and it could be “the biggest fight ever”, the boss of the UFC has said.
The tech billionaires exchanged a few posts on their respective social media platforms Wednesday after Musk took the first shot – in response to a comment that he “better be careful” now that Zuckerberg does jiu jitsu – writing, “I’m up for a cage match if he is lol.”
It turns out Zuckerberg was, and the pair thought Las Vegas was a good spot to throw down.
Dana White told TMZ on Thursday that he “probably spent an hour-and-a-half on the phone” with each of the men and they were both committed to making it happen: “Both guys are dead serious about this.”
White suggested Musk v Zuckerberg would eclipse the revenue and viewership of the 2017 boxing spectacle between Floyd Mayweather and Connor McGregor, which 50 million people watched in the US alone.
“There’s no limit on what this thing can make,” White said.
Of his chat with the Meta and Telsa bosses, White recalled: “They both said, ‘Yeah, we’ll do it.’ They both want to do it.
“Mark Zuckerberg hit me up first and said, ‘Is (Elon) serious?’ And I said, ‘I don’t know, let me ask him.’ I asked him, and he said, ‘Yeah, I’m dead serious.’”
While the fight seems somewhat unlikely outside of the Metaverse – not least because Musk isn’t a fighter (Zuckerberg has won some medals) – White is “taking it very seriously” and said he is willing to build an entire card around the bout with “some really fun fights”.
White said: “Listen, if these guys are serious, I make fights that people want to see. That’s what I do for a living. If they really want to do it and they’re serious, and we can figure out a way to pull this off, I would absolutely, positively do this.”
He suggested the billionaires could each pick a charity to fight for.
“This would be the biggest fight ever in the history of the world, bigger than anything that’s ever been done,” White said.
“It would break all pay-per-view records. These guys would raise hundreds of millions of dollars for charity. You don’t have to be a fight fan to be interested in this fight. Everybody would want to see it.”
White believes Musk v Zuckerberg could smash the Mayweather v Mcgregor fight stats. The latter was the second-highest pay-per-view of all time.
“I think it triples that. There’s no limit on what this thing could make,” White said. “… Everybody would watch it. Everybody would want to see it.”
Musk, 51, lit the fight fire, and then later suggested the pair go full MMA, amid reports that his rival’s company, Meta, is plotting to take on Twitter, with an Instagram spin-off called Threads.
Zuckerberg, 39, posted a screenshot of Musk’s tweet on his Instagram story, with the caption “send me location”.
Musk, who purchased Twitter last year, then hit back with, Vegas Octagon.
While Zuckerberg’s reply appeared to be a tongue-in-cheek, The Verge later reported that a Meta spokesperson indicated that the Meta CEO was serious about getting into the octagon with Musk.
“The story speaks for itself,” spokesperson Iska Saric told the outlet’s Alex Heath.
Zuckerberg will likely be confident if it goes ahead – he’s younger, at 39, than 51-year-old Musk and trains with a jiu-jitsu team, while Musk has previously admitted he rarely works out “except for picking up my kids & throwing them in the air”. One of his signature moves, he’s said, is “The Walrus,” where he lies on top of his opponent and does nothing.
Last month, Zuckerberg stunned onlookers winning a gold and a silver at a jiu-jitsu tournament. He has been training and impressing athletes within MMA circles since the start of the pandemic.
Sports betting websites, the Insider reported, have Zucerberg as the hot favourite, given he’s much younger and already training in the sport.
Even Musk’s mum doesn’t rate his chances.
Maye Musk is trying to get her son to drop the fight. “No joking,” she tweeted.
“Fight with words only. In armchairs. 4 feet apart. The funniest person wins.”
Related links:
Andrew Tate offers to train Elon Musk for cage fight against Mark Zuckerberg
Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg agree to hold cage fight
Mark Zuckerberg stuns onlookers by winning gold and silver at first jiu-jitsu tournament
Andrew Tate charged with rape and human trafficking
