Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Texas Gov Greg Abbott bizarrely weighs in on Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg’s cage fight

Tech billionaires became increasingly serious about a cage fight, following social media back-and-forth

Maanya Sachdeva
Friday 23 June 2023 16:47 BST
Comments
Elon Musk buys Twitter for $44bn

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott has bizarrely weighed in on a possible cage fight between tech billionaires Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg.

Last month, while reacting to rumours Meta was developing an app to rival Twitter, Mr Musk tweeted: “I’m sure Earth can’t wait to be exclusively under Zuck’s thumb with no other options.”

One user quipped the Tesla founder “better be careful” as Mr Zuckerberg is trained in Brazillian jiu-jitsu. “I’m up for a cage match if he is lol,” Mr Musk replied.

Responding to the challenge, Mr Zuckerberg shared a screenshot of the tweet on Instagram, and captioned it: “send me location”. Since then, a spokesperson for Meta has confirmed its founder “is serious about fighting Elon Musk” in a statement to The Verge, adding: “The story speaks for itself.”

Replying to a tweet about Mr Zuckerberg’s confirmation, Mr Musk suggested the fight should take place at “Vegas Octagon”, or the UFC Apex in Nevada.

Dana White, the president of UFC, has also indicated both Mr Musk and Mr Zuckerberg are “dead serious” about going head-to-head in a cage match.

On Thursday (22 June), Mr Abbott retweeted a post about Mr White’s statement, with the caption: “Do it.

“The biggest fight in UFC history,” his tweet read.

“This can’t be serious,” one user reacted to Mr Abbott’s post, while another wrote: “That’ll fix the electric grid!”

Several commenters urged Mr Abbott to focus on infrastructure issues plaguing the Lone Star state, as Texans suffer through power outages amid an unprecedented heat wave this year.

Earlier this week, it was reported that the Texas grid operator was expecting record electricity consumption as temperatures soared into the triple digits in some parts of the state.

Mr Zuckerberg competed in his first jiu-jitsu tournament in May, marking the occasion with an Instagram post.

“Competed in my first jiu jitsu tournament and won some medals for the Guerrilla Jiu Jitsu team,” the 38-year-old wrote captioned the carousel, including photos of him from the competition.

Meanwhile, Mr Musk, who claims he doesn’t exercise, recently explained his strategy to defeat Mr Zuckerberg during a podcast appearance.

“I have a move called ‘The Walrus’, which I used on a friend of mine who’s very agile,” he told the Full Send podcast.

“But I was like, let me explain to you why there are weight classes in MMA. I’m going to use a move called ‘The Walrus’, where I just lie on you and you can’t get away.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in