With a bit of luck the door is about to shut on one of the weirder episodes in the technology sector. Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg has acknowledged a proposed cage fight with Elon Musk is unlikely to happen, concluding the Tesla boss “isn’t serious” about it.
Musk has made a habit of making grand plans only to try to back out at the last minute. Even his much publicised purchase of Twitter (since rebranded as X) only came about because the social network took a court case to force the deal through. So the fact that Musk is now proposing a backyard practice match should come as no surprise.
He had talked a good game, suggesting the fight could be held at a location in Italy and talked about streaming options. But when it came down to it the billionaire seems unable to commit.
“I offered a real date. Dana White [UFC boss] offered to make this a legit competition for charity,” Zuckerberg said in a post on Threads. “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.”
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The fact that Musk suggested it could be streamed on the platform formerly known as Twitter should have been a clue that the fight was unlikely to happen. Zuckerberg shot back that a more stable platform would probably be a better idea.
But in the grand scheme of things the best option is none at all. This fight, while it might draw a crowd, would make no one look good, even the eventual winner. This is all coming at a point where Zuckerberg is looking like the more mature one in the room. Getting drawn into the weirdly petty world of Elon Musk is something that he should rise above if he wants to keep it that way.
