The day after Elon Musk challenged Mark Zuckerberg to a “cage fight” on social media this month, Ultimate Fighting Championship president Dana White received a text message.
It was from Mr. Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta. He asked Mr White, who runs the world’s leading mixed martial arts competition, which is held in cage-style rings, if Mr Musk was serious about a fight.
Mr White called Mr Musk, who runs Tesla, Twitter and SpaceX, and confirmed he was prepared to cancel. Mr. White then relayed this to Mr. Zuckerberg. In response, Mr. Zuckerberg posted on Instagram: “Send Me Location,” a nod to the catchphrase of Khabib Nurmagomedov, one of the UFC’s most decorated athletes.
Since then, Mr White said he has spoken to the tech billionaires separately every night to set up the showdown. On Tuesday, he said, he was “on the phone with the two of them until 12:45 in the morning.” He added, “They both want to do it.”
If you thought a cage fight between two of the world’s richest men was just some far-fetched social media stunt, think again.
Mr White said he, Mr Musk and Mr Zuckerberg had been negotiating behind the scenes – aided by advisers – for the past ten days and were slowly approaching physical combat. While there are no guarantees a game will come about, the broad outlines of an event are taking shape, said Mr White and three people with knowledge of the discussions.
The fight will be an exhibition fight, Mr. White said, and falls outside the UFC’s official jurisdiction and rights arrangements, although he would help organize the event. The tech leaders have agreed there should be a charity component, Mr White and a person familiar with the talks said, with details still being worked out. The preferred location is Las Vegas, which requires approval from the Nevada Athletic Commission. On Thursday, Mr Musk tweeted that the event could also take place in the Roman Colosseum.
Mr Zuckerberg’s friends and advisors have generally been supportive of the game, two people close to him said, although others said a fight would be a distraction and not the best use of his time. A person close to Mr Musk said that while he hates sports and doesn’t seem to have the discipline to exercise regularly, nobody can rule that out with him.
If it comes to a duel between Mr Musk, 52, and Mr Zuckerberg, 39, it would be a rare spectacle, even in the boastful universe of the tech industry. While Steve Jobs and Bill Gates berated each other, the tech world had previously only seen real sports feuds between billionaire sailors like Oracle’s Larry Ellison and SAP’s Hasso Plattner.
But two ultra-rich tech titans wrestling, punching and kicking in an arena in Las Vegas or Rome? Nobody would have dreamed it.
Meta declined to comment. Mr Musk did not respond to a request for comment.
Mr. Zuckerberg and Mr. Musk have long vacillated between competitors, enemies, and outright enemies. The two have criticized each other over the years, including over Mr Musk’s SpaceX rockets, privacy scandals at Meta and more. Most recently, Mr. Zuckerberg dispatched a team at Meta to build a competitor to Mr. Musk’s Twitter, codenamed Project 92.
If their rivalry goes beyond those taunts, the UFC’s Mr. White said he has concerns about the physical divide between the billionaires. Aside from their 13-year age difference, Mr Musk is said to be at least 70 pounds heavier than Mr Zuckerberg. In official mixed martial arts bouts, athletes are generally matched by weight.
“We have two guys who have never fought professionally and they are in two completely different weight classes,” said Mr. White. Still, he said, “It will be the biggest fight in martial arts history.”
Mr. Zuckerberg is particularly knowledgeable about the UFC world. Over the past 18 months, he has embarked on a personal journey to build muscle and has delved deep into Brazilian Ju-Jitsu, a martial art in which contestants attempt to subdue their opponent and used in UFC bouts.
Mr. Zuckerberg spontaneously started training in 2021, mainly in his garage, where he set up what he called a “mini academy” with a circle of friends who trained with him. He said he appreciates that Brazilian jujitsu requires “100 percent concentration” and strategic thinking to defeat an opponent, not brute force.
Mr. Zuckerberg has consulted martial arts experts including Dave Camarillo, James Terry and Khai Wu. In May, he competed in his first public martial arts tournament in Redwood City, California, where he competed undercover – up until the moment he took off his hat and sunglasses to fight. He won gold and silver medals at the Challenge.
Last year, Meta also announced that it had partnered with the UFC to bring mixed martial arts combat to its virtual reality app, Horizon Worlds.
Mr White said Mr Zuckerberg was really committed to the sport.
“I’ve been speaking to Zuckerberg for maybe almost two years now,” he said. “And there’s never that much banter or we joke and laugh.” He said the meta boss was “absolutely serious the entire time.”
Mr. Zuckerberg is likely in fighting form. He completed a rigorous training regimen, went running and challenged friends and colleagues to beat his times, according to two people close to him. This month he set a personal record for completing the “Murph” challenge, which requires him to complete a series of pull-ups and push-ups, run several kilometers and complete hundreds of squats, all while wearing weighted military-grade body armor.
“Playing sports, which generally require full attention, I think is really important for my mental health and for being able to focus on everything I’m doing,” he said in a recent podcast episode.
Mr Musk, on the other hand, does tweeted that he “almost never” and only succeeds once suffered a back injury that surgery was required after competing with a sumo wrestler. This month he called He had trained “Judo, Kyokushin (full contact)” – two Japanese martial arts – and “street fighting without rules”.
“He made that very clear: ‘I’m not going to lose any weight,'” Mr White said of Mr Musk’s approach to the potential duel. “‘Are we going to fight or are we not going to fight?'” Mr White said Mr Musk told him.
This week, Lex Fridman, a podcaster, posted photos of himself practicing judo with Mr. Musk. Mr Fridman, who also trained ju-jutsu under Mr Zuckerberg, did not respond to a request for comment.
At least one person doesn’t appear to be a fan of a fight: Maye Musk, Mr Musk’s mother.
“Don’t promote this game!” she recently said tweetedalong with two frowning emojis.