Musk versus Zuckerberg: chronicle of an aborted fight

2023-08-25 04:00:23

In a parallel universe, a fight of titans was to take place on Saturday August 26: Elon Musk (1.86 meters, 90 kilos estimated) once morest Mark Zuckerberg (1.72 meters, 70 kilos). More than 300 billion dollars of personal fortunes, united in a cage of mixed martial arts (mixed martial arts, MMA), for a confrontation for the benefit of a charity organization and which was also to “settle” the interpersonal conflict between the two multi-billionaires and leaders of competing social networks, revived since the launch, on July 6, of Threads, designed by Instagram, in order to compete with X, formerly Twitter.

Also read the decryption: Article reserved for our subscribers With Threads, Meta intends to compete with Twitter

But this unique fight in history will probably never take place. Mark Zuckerberg claims to have proposed, from the beginning of the summer, the date of August 26, following having taken at his word a provocation by Elon Musk launched at the end of June: “I’m ready to face it in a cage match lol”had written the boss of X, Tesla and SpaceX on his social network; « Send me location » (“send me the address”), Mark Zuckerberg then replied on his Instagram platform, in reference to a well-known anecdote of the conflict between MMA champions Khabib Nurmagomedov and Conor McGregor.

This reaction took everyone by surprise. The press, which had to confirm by Meta that Mark Zuckerberg was serious; the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), the world’s main MMA organization, which was quick to bounce back on the subject to try to organize the match; and Elon Musk himself, who obviously did not expect anyone to reply to him.

Read also: Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg challenge each other, and semi-ironically, to an MMA fight

Because, unlike the latter, Mark Zuckerberg is not accustomed to provocations on social networks. In nearly fifteen years at the head of Facebook, then of Meta, he has largely limited his online publications to professional messages, family photos and a few holiday images. More recently, he had begun to document his enthusiasm for the practice of Brazilian jiu-jitsu, on his Instagram account.

Insults and provocations

During the summer, Elon Musk multiplied announcements and provocations to raise expectations around this announced duel, staging a “impromptu training” judo with his friend Lex Fridman, posing with former UFC champion George Saint-Pierre, dealing in early July Mark Zuckeberg of « cougar » or proposing to replace the confrontation by a “dick measuring contest”. He had also publicly offered to hold the fight in grandiose venues, including the Colosseum in Rome, implying that the government of Giorgia Meloni (extreme right), whom he had met in June, had given his agreement. An assertion then denied by the Italian Minister of Culture.

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