Elon Musk still interested in Mark Zuckerberg fight, ‘anytime, anywhere, any place, any rule’
Photo by MANDEL NGAN,ALAIN JOCARD/AFP via Getty Images
Fresh from an impromptu test of the Tesla Cybertruck’s strength against Joe Rogan’s arrows, Elon Musk talked tough about a potential fight with Mark Zuckerberg.
Musk apparently hasn’t let the idea go, and on Tuesday’s edition of the Joe Rogan Experience, he again challenged his Meta rival to a fight “anytime, anywhere, any place, any rule.”
“He accused me of not being serious, and I said, ‘Listen, at the end of the day, I’ll fight you any place, anywhere, under any rules,’” Musk told Rogan. “That’s what I said.
“He said name the place. I’m happy to fight him in a house, on a mouse, with a louse we’d like, go full Doctor Seuss here. I’m a way bigger than him. This is unfair. I don’t think he should fight me.”
Zuckerberg, a devout jiu-jitsu practitioner, called off the tech moguls’ bizarre detour into the combat sports world earlier this year when he claimed Musk wasn’t serious about a real fight. Musk posted a text exchange he said was with Zuckerberg asking for a practice fight at Zuckerberg’s house, which boasts a full-size octagon, and admitted he hadn’t trained much.
On Tuesday, Musk said that wouldn’t matter.
“I’m like 50 percent heavier than him,” said the Tesla exec, who said he weighed around 240 pounds. “I’ve got my patented walrus move. I just lie on him. Like, a walrus doesn’t need martial arts training, because it’s really big.”
Asked about his preparation and cardio, Musk shot back, “I don’t need any time, no time at all. It’s not…that will not be a factor.” He relayed the story of smothering a female “who is pretty good at fighting” by lying on her. He also claimed to have a decade of martial arts experience in judo, Kyokushin karate, jiu-jitsu, taekwondo and street fighting, which he added was “involuntary” and in part the product of a tough school environment.
According to Musk, the fight was on track to take place at the Coliseum in Rome before Zuckerberg pulled out.
“Italy actually was willing to let us use the Coliseum,” he said. “So then I was like, ‘Well, can’t turn that down.’ Then I was like, well, if it’s going to be in the coliseum, I like UFC and everything, but we don’t have tons of ads in UFC branding on the Coliseum, because it’s a place of great history. You don’t want to have it be all like NASCAR. And then Zuck pulled out.”
UFC CEO Dana White jumped to promote the bout between Musk and Zuckerberg, who once was treated to a private event, UFC Vegas 61, at the UFC APEX in Las Vegas. Meta and UFC also partnered to broadcast UFC events in virtual reality. In September, he conceded the fight was “probably” dead in the water after the moguls failed to come to terms.