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Two of the world’s richest men appear to be increasingly interested in proving that they’re also actually very tough guys. Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk have made billions of dollars off of their respective technological innovations and investments, but all the money in the world can’t buy someone legitimate street cred.
As such, the Facebook founder and Tesla CEO recently found themselves sparring over social media, with fans ready to rile both men up for the idea of a possible cage fight between them. After Musk claimed that he was “up for a cage match” if Zuckerberg was, the recent competitive BJJ grappler took to Instagram with a quote from MMA royalty.
“Send Me Location,” Zuckerberg wrote, aping former UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov.
Dana White backs up Mark Zuckerberg vs. Elon Musk cage fight idea
Although UFC president Dana White has long claimed that his promotion doesn’t do “gimmick fights,” the Power Slap CEO was quick to jump in on this gimmick in a recent interview with TMZ. In a video posted by the website, White claimed he had been in contact with both men and that they were “absolutely” serious about getting a fight booked.
“Talked with Mark and Elon last night, both guys are absolutely dead serious about this,” White told the outlet.
Despite his enthusiasm, however, it has to be assumed that there’s nothing more to this bout than pointless posturing. With the huge amount of money both men are already worth and the massive amount of value in both their reputations as heads of two publicly traded companies, the likelihood that either of them would actually step into a full contact professional MMA fight seems beyond slim.
That said, Mark Zuckerberg recently slid into a regional Jiu Jitsu competition unannounced, where he won gold as one of only two competitors in the Master 1 no-gi white belt division at 149 lbs. Despite that success, the lasting note from the event was one of mild controversy—after Zuckerberg lost a gi match that same day where the referee claimed that the Facebook CEO had been put to sleep by his opponent.
“At no point during the competition was Mark knocked unconscious,” Meta spokesperson Elana Widmann told The Daily Beast. “That never happened.”
If a match of that little consequence was able to trigger Meta into stepping in and making public statements on Zuckerberg’s behalf, it seems nigh impossible to imagine what reaction a potential cage fight might garner.
Dana White’s other gimmick
Of course, that’s not the only gimmick fight that White’s got cooking at the moment. Possibly even further from the scope of reality is the idea of an MMA match between heavyweight boxing champion Tyson Fury and current UFC heavyweight champ Jon Jones. The two men got to chirping at one another on Twitter recently, over claims of who would win what kind of fight in which sport, before the UFC boss jumped in the middle and claimed he was making Fury an official offer.
“I will make Jon Jones vs. Tyson Fury in the Octagon,” Dana White told media at UFC press conference. “And we’ll figure it out. We figured out how to pay Floyd [Mayweather], we’ll figure out how to pay you too, Tyson.”
For his part, Fury seems none to pleased to find himself still in the conversation with Jon Jones and the UFC. The ‘Gypsy King’ isn’t directing his ire at either ‘Bones’ or White, however, instead taking his rage out on Joe Rogan, who really kick-started the ‘what if’ conversation on an episode of his podcast.
“It was actually Joe Rogan, little shitbag, who [started this],” said Fury. “Just out of the blue, there was no talk of me or Jon even fighting. Jon’s a great guy, probably the GOAT of MMA. [Rogan] said, ‘Oh if Tyson Fury goes in a room with Jon Jones he’s going to get absolutely smashed to bits.’ Like, if someone goes in the room with me and it’s no holds barred, you’re going to have to kill me to stop me.”
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