Thilina
Kaluthotage
|
Nurphoto
|
Getty
Images
The
long-hyped
possibility
of
a
cage
match
between
tech
titans
Mark
Zuckerberg
and
Elon
Musk
appears
to
be
no
more,
after
Zuckerberg
dismissed
Musk
for
allegedly
delaying
their
anticipated
showdown
in
the
ring.
“I
think
we
can
all
agree
Elon
isn’t
serious
and
it’s
time
to
move
on,”
the
Facebook
co-founder wrote
Sunday
in
a
post
on
Threads,
the text-based
app Meta
launched as
a
competitor
to
X,
the company
formerly
known
as
Twitter.
The
social
media
executives
have
been
teasing
the
possibility
of
a
mixed
martial
arts
fight
since
June,
calling
it
a
“cage
match,”
an
informal
term
referring
to
wrestling
in
a
closed-in
space
that
combatants
aim
to
escape
from.
More
from
NBC
News:
But
in
his
latest
comments
on
the
matter,
Zuckerberg
said
that
while
he
was
ready
to
fight,
Musk
kept
coming
up
with
reasons
he
couldn’t.
“I
offered
a
real
date.
Dana
White
offered
to
make
this
a
legit
competition
for
charity,”
Zuckerberg
wrote,
referring
to
the
president
of
the
Las
Vegas-based
company
Ultimate
Fighting
Championship,
who the
New
York
Times previously
reported
was
trying
to
organize
the
fight.
“Elon
won’t
confirm
a
date,
then
says
he
needs
surgery,
and
now
asks
to
do
a
practice
round
in
my
backyard
instead,”
the
chief
executive
officer
of
Meta
continued.
Musk previously
claimed
he
may
need
surgery before
fighting
his
rival.
“If
Elon
ever
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,”
Zuckerberg
concluded.
Musk
has
not
yet
publicly
responded
to
Zuckerberg’s
latest
comments,
and
a
spokesperson
for
X
could
not
immediately
be
reached.
But
earlier
Sunday, he
tweeted what
he
claimed
was
a
screenshot
of
a
text
conversation
with
Zuckerberg
in
which
Musk
appeared
to
suggest
they
meet
for
“a
practice
bout”
on
Monday
in
the
backyard
of
Zuckerberg’s
Palo
Alto
home,
where
he
previously
claimed
to
have
built
an
Octagon,
a
UFC-branded
ring, TMZ
reported
earlier
this
month.
Their
friendly
rivalry
intensified
when
Zuckerberg
rolled
out
Threads
last
month
in
a
bid
to
compete
with
X.
An
attorney
for
Musk
subsequently sent
a
letter accusing
Meta
of
misappropriating
X’s
trade
secrets
and
hiring
ex-Twitter
employees
to
make
Threads.
“I’m
sure
Earth
can’t
wait
to
be
exclusively
under
Zuck’s
thumb
with
no
other
options,”
Musk tweeted ahead
of
the
Threads
rollout.
Shortly
after,
in
responding
to
an
X
user
who
joked
about
Zuckerberg
being
trained
in
the
Brazilian
combat
sport
of
jiujitsu, Musk
responded,
“I’m
up
for
a
cage
match
if
he
is
lol.”
Meta’s
communications
director,
Andy
Stone,
responded
to
reports
of
the
letter
from
Musk’s
attorney,
saying
on
Threads,
“No
one
on
the
Threads
engineering
team
is
a
former
Twitter
employee
—
that’s
just
not
a
thing.”
Musk
and
Zuckerberg
are
the
second
and
16th
richest
people
on
the
planet,
respectively,
according
to Forbes‘
most
recent
list
of
billionaires.
