Mark Zuckerberg says he is ‘ready today’ but ‘not holding breath’ for cage fight with Elon Musk

‘All proceeds will go to charity for veterans,’ Musk says

Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg says he is “ready today” but “not holding his breath” to take on Tesla boss and Twitter owner Elon Musk in a proposed cage fight.

In a post on Sunday in Meta’s recently launched social media platform Threads, Mr Zuckerberg said he had proposed 26 August for the bout with the Tesla titan.

“I’m ready today. I suggested Aug 26 when he first challenged, but he hasn’t confirmed. Not holding my breath,” the Meta chief said in response to Mr Musk’s post on Twitter, which has been rebranded as X.

Earlier on Sunday, the Tesla and SpaceX boss said he was preparing for the fight, “lifting weights throughout the day”.

Mr Musk said the fight would be “live-streamed on X” with proceeds from the match up going to charity for veterans. “Zuck v Musk fight will be live-streamed on X....All proceeds will go to charity for veterans,” Mr Musk tweeted on Sunday.

The Meta chief quipped that “a more reliable platform” could be used “that can actually raise money for charity” – likely hinting that Facebook and Instagram have a built-in fundraising feature.

The cage match proposal started when Mr Musk, responding to a tweet about Twitter rival Threads, took a dig about the world becoming “exclusively under Zuck’s thumb with no other options” to which a Twitter user jokingly warned the Tesla chief of his rival’s jiu jitsu training.

“I’m up for a cage match if he is lol,” Mr Musk responded to the user.

Replying to another user about the point of the fight with his rival, the Tesla titan said “It’s a civilised form of war”.

In the following days, there were several back-and-forths on social media between the two tech rivals, which ended in them agreeing to face each other off in a cage match.

In the lead-up to the possible clash, Mr Zuckerberg said he had built an octagon in the garden outside his house, which seems to have not gone well with his wife Priscilla Chan.

“I have been working on that grass for two years,” Ms Chan said, according to a screenshot of their conversation shared by the Meta chief.