Elon Musk recently made headlines when he hinted at a potential cage match with Mark Zuckerberg. Musk said on Saturday that if the mixed martial arts cage match materializes, he would begin training.
During a Twitter conversation with Ashlee Vance (the author of a book on Musk and the space race), Musk revealed: “I haven’t started training yet. So if this does happen, I will.”
While at a birthday celebration in Europe, Musk said that the match “might actually happen.”
When Musk tweeted on Tuesday, “I’m up for a cage match if he is lol,” it seemed to be a joke. But it turned more serious when Zuckerberg responded, “Send me location.” Zuckerberg has experience in mixed martial arts, and even shared a post about completing a jiu-jitsu tournament just last month.
Since then, discussions surrounding the potential matchup have escalated. Several MMA stars have offered to train Musk in preparation for the bout. Even UFC chief Dana White got involved and confirmed his conversations with both men, stating: “Both guys are absolutely dead serious about this. They both want to do it.”
White continued: “Mark Zuckerberg hit me up first and said: ‘Is he serious?’ And I said, ‘I don’t know, let me ask him,’ and I asked him and he said, ‘yeah, I’m dead serious.'”
The record for a pay-per-view combat sporting event currently stands at the boxing match between Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor, which generated a staggering $600 million in revenue in 2017.
But White believes that a match between Musk and Zuckerberg has the potential to surpass that figure and exceed $1 billion, making it the biggest match of all time.
In terms of physical attributes, Musk has a size advantage over Zuckerberg. Additionally, he is 11 years older than his rival.
But Dana White remains confident that the matchup would draw an enormous audience, stating: “It would break all pay-per-view records. These guys would raise, you know, hundreds of millions of dollars for charity…”
“Everybody would want to see it.”
Despite the uncertainty, bets are already being placed on the projected winner of the match. As of Thursday, DraftKings’ projected odds stood at 140+ for Musk and -160 for Zuckerberg.