If you were still holding out hope that two billionaires were going to publicly beat each other senseless for the entertainment of the masses, one of them has confirmed the fight likely won’t happen.
Over the weekend, Meta co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg posted on Meta’s Twitter-clone Threads, writing:
“I think we can all agree Elon [Musk] isn’t serious and it’s time to move on. I offered a real date. Dana White offered to make this a legit competition for charity. Elon won’t confirm a date, then says he needs surgery, and now asks to do a practice round in my backyard instead. 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.”
Post by @zuckView on Threads
Zuckerberg’s post comes after Musk spent August 11th hyping up the event on the website formerly known as Twitter. Musk claimed to have spoken with Italy’s prime minister and Minister of Culture, who “agreed on an epic location” for the fight. Musk also claimed he had a shoulder issue that would require “minor surgery” with a recovery time that would “only take a few months.”
Update August 14th, 2023 at 1:14pm ET: Musk tweeted “challenge accepted” and tagged Zuckerberg’s Twitter account, seemingly in response to Zuckerberg’s Threads post. However, until we see confirmation from Zuckerberg that the fight is on, I wouldn’t put much stock in what Musk says.
Journalist and author Walter Isaacson tweeted a screenshot Musk sent him of a text conversation between Musk and Zuckerberg showing Musk asking for a “practice bout” in Zuckerberg’s backyard octagon in Palo Alto.
I got this text message from Elon Musk at 4:44am CT showing a screenshot of some text messages in which he tells Mark Zuckerberg they should fight this Monday at Zuckerberg’s home in Palo Alto. pic.twitter.com/krgRsH5P5G
— Walter Isaacson (@WalterIsaacson) August 13, 2023
It seems the fight won’t be happening, and the whole saga has played out more or less as expected. Musk tends to impulsively say things on Twitter/X and then chicken out. We saw it when Musk purchased Twitter — he tried to back out at the end but ultimately followed through only because he had no other option. Unless Zuckerberg comes up with fighting’s equivalent to the Delaware Court of Chancery to force Musk into participating, I doubt we’ll see the two fight.
Of course, Musk tends to be impulsive, so maybe Zuckerberg’s goading will work after all. I certainly hope so — this fight has the potential to be one of the funniest events of our time.
Source: Zuckerberg (Threads) Via: Gizmodo
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