‘Gladiator’: Elon Musk reveals more details of fight with Mark Zuckerberg

Injury means that fight will not happen for months, Mr Musk suggests

MUSK-ZUCKERBERG-PELEA (AP)

Elon Musk has revealed more dramatic details of his planned fight against Mark Zuckerberg.

The face-off will happen in an “epic location” in Italy, Mr Musk said, and will be live-streamed both on Twitter and Meta.

But it might not actually happen for some time. Mr Musk indicated that he has a “problem” with his shoulder blade, which will require minor surgery and a few months of recovery.

Both Mr Musk and Mr Zuckerberg have publicly committed to fight in an MMA match that appears to have begun as lighthearted jokes between the two tech billionaires. Mr Musk has been more outspoken about the match, sharing a range of details on Twitter, but also has occasionally appeared to suggest that it could not happen – suggesting recently that the fight could actually be a “debate”.

Despite those posts, however, Mr Musk claimed that work has been going into making the fight happen, and that a location has been chosen in collaboration with the government of Italy.

“The fight will be managed by my and Zuck’s foundations (not UFC),” he wrote, in contrast to suggestions that UFC boss Dana White could organise the match.

“Livestream will be on this platform and Meta. Everything in camera frame will be ancient Rome, so nothing modern at all.

“I spoke to the PM of Italy and Minister of Culture. They have agreed on an epic location.”

In a follow-up post, he wrote only “Gladiator”, alongside two crossed sword emoji.

Previously, Mr Musk and others have suggested that the fight could happen at Rome’s Colosseum. It is not clear whether that was the “epic location” to which Mr Musk referred.

Mr Musk was then asked about recent posts in which he had said that he would need to undergo an MRI scan before he was able to begin the fight. He said that he has issues with his neck and back, which appear to relate to a sumo match years ago – in a post earlier this year, he said he had experience around “eight years of pain from a crushed disc”.

“I spent 3 hours in an MRI machine on Monday. Bottom line is that my C5/C6 fusion is solid, so not an issue,” he wrote.

“However, there is a problem with my right shoulder blade rubbing against my ribs, which requires minor surgery. Recovery will only take a few months.”

Mr Zuckerberg appears to be training more seriously for the fight, and has shared a number of pictures with UFC fighters and other coaches. While Mr Musk has also met with professional fighters, he has also tweeted that demands on his time have required much of his training to be done with weights in his office.