Skip to main content

The social media back-and-forth between Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk in which both appeared open to a mixed martial arts bout between the two has taken on a life of its own.

To recap: Musk, the Twitter, SpaceX and Tesla chief appeared to accept a challenge from Facebook founder Zuckerberg to take part in an MMA fight, prompting a giddy Dana White to declare that the contest would probably be the “biggest fight in the history of the world.”

Now, while most observers would probably think it unlikely that a fight between two combat sports novices, aged 39 and 51, could outsell the biggest offerings from MMA and boxing over the years, that hasn’t stopped the issue commanding sizeable column inches in the sports media (including here, we admit).

But if (and that’s a BIG ‘if’) the battle of the billionaires were to take place, it would be almost certain that Zuckerberg would have an advantage given that he has training in various facets of the sport for around three years now — and has even medaled in BJJ tournaments in California.

And while Musk was keen to champion his South African street-fighting experience, he would surely require some more robust levels of training before he was to enter a cafe.

Enter UFC Hall of Famer Georges St-Pierre: “I’m a huge fan of yours and it would be an absolute honor to help you and be your training partner for the challenge against Zuckerberg.”

Early on Tuesday, Musk responded: “OK, let’s do it.”

Speaking last week after he said he discussed the potential fight with both men, Dana White said that “It would break all pay-per-view records. These guys would raise hundreds of millions of dollars for charity. You don’t have to be a fighting fan to be interested in this fight. Everybody would want to see it.”

Or, it would look like two relatively unskilled and unathletic billionaires verging on middle age going at it in a cage. But we suppose that’s up for a pay-per-view audience to decide.