Zuckerberg Moving On From Musk Cage Fight

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg no longer plans to fight Tesla and X CEO Elon Musk in a cage fight.

Zuckerberg on Sunday pulled out of the discussed fight citing Musk's apparent stall tactics.

"I think we can all agree Elon isn't serious and it's time to move on. I offered a real date. Dana White offered to make this a legit competition for charity. Elon won't confirm a date, then says he needs surgery, and now asks to do a practice round in my backyard instead," Zuckerberg wrote in a post on his Threads site.

"If Elon ever gets serious about a real date and official event, he knows how to reach me. Otherwise, time to move on. I'm going to focus on competing with people who take the sport seriously."

Musk then commented on his X social platform (formerly known as Twitter) that included a screen grab of The Verge story about Zuckerberg's Threads message.

"Can't wait to bang on his door tomorrow (tears of joy emoji)," Musk wrote.

The idea of Musk, 52, and Zuckerberg, 39, engaging in a martial arts-type battle began June 20, when Musk posted that he was "up for a cage match" with Zuckerberg, who is trained in jiu-jitsu.

Musk on Friday said his much-hyped cage fight with Zuckerberg would take place in Italy, as authorities there confirmed talks about hosting a "great charity event."

The X and Tesla CEO apparently hoped the fight would take place in the ancient Colosseum, a UNESCO World Heritage site, posting about the idea in late June.

Last week, Musk appeared to be considering a "noble" debate instead of a cage fight against Zuckerberg.

Musk responded to a tweet from TED curator Chris Anderson, who suggested the two social media billionaires hold a "cage match DEBATE."

Last week, Musk said his proposed fight with Zuckerberg would be live-streamed on X.

Meta's Threads compiled more than 30 million sign-ups within about 18 hours of its launch early last month, emerging as the first real threat to X as it took advantage of its access to billions of Instagram users and a similar look to that of its rival.

AFP and Reuters contributed to this story.

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