Musk vs. Zuck

[PHXPhlyer]

Elon Musk vs Mark Zuckerberg fight will be streamed on X, according to Musk

https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/06/business ... index.html

The possible showdown between Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg will be streamed on X, formerly known as Twitter, according to Musk.

In a pair of tweets Sunday morning, the platform’s owner said he was “lifting weights throughout the day, preparing for the fight,” adding “all proceeds will go to charity for veterans.”

Musk has not provided more details about the fight.

In June, the two Big Tech billionaires seemingly agreed to participate in a cage fight. The stakes for the potential fight were raised last month when Zuckerberg’s Meta launched a new Twitter competitor called Threads.

Zuckerberg replied to Musk via Threads on Sunday afternoon, “Shouldn’t we use a more reliable platform that can actually raise money for charity?”

He added: “I’m ready today. I suggested Aug 26 when (Musk) first challenged, but he hasn’t confirmed. Not holding my breath.”

Since Musk’s takeover of Twitter in October 2022, policy pivots, technical issues, and the platform’s stance on harassment and hate speech have given many users whiplash. When Threads was released, some saw it as a viable alternative that might unseat its rival, and the app saw enormous initial success. A lawyer representing Twitter even threatened a lawsuit over Threads.

CNN reached out to Twitter and Meta for comment but have not received a response.

PP

[PHXPhlyer]

Musk teases MMA fight but also says he needs surgery; Zuckerberg says, 'I'm ready'
The grudge match between the titans of U.S. social media may be headed for the real world as both men say they've been training for victory.

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/ ... -rcna98452

Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg put a proposed mixed martial arts bout with Twitter buyer Elon Musk back in play Sunday by saying, "I'm ready."

Talk of a "cage match" between the titans of tech seemed to die down in recent weeks, but on Sunday morning Musk announced that his platform, now called X, will livestream the bout, which still lacks a date.

"Zuck v Musk fight will be live-streamed on X," Musk, 52, said on his platform. "All proceeds will go to charity for veterans."

Zuckerberg had not publicly confirmed that information. Also Sunday, responding to Musk's statement on X that he has been "preparing for the fight," Zuckerberg said on Threads, his newest social media platform, "I'm ready today."

"I suggested Aug 26 when he first challenged, but he hasn't confirmed," Zuckerberg, 39, wrote. "Not holding my breath."

Musk said Sunday evening in response to Zuckerberg that he may need surgery before facing off against his fellow tech exec.

"Exact date is still in flux. I’m getting an MRI of my neck & upper back tomorrow," Musk said in a post on X. "May require surgery before the fight can happen. Will know this week."

Musk and Zuckerberg are the second and 16th richest people on the planet, respectively, according to Forbes' last annual accounting. Zuckerberg says he is a self-taught programmer; Musk studied physics and engineering.

Their friendly rivalry got a little salty in recent months as Zuckerberg rolled out Threads, a Twitter-like platform, in a clear move to take advantage of users' and advertisers' growing dissatisfaction with Musk's reign at the platform that would become X.

"I’m sure Earth can’t wait to be exclusively under Zuck’s thumb with no other options," Musk tweeted June 20.

When an X user joked that Musk had better watch his words because Zuckerberg trains in jiujitsu, the Brazilian combat sport that is one of the core disciplines in mixed martial arts, Musk responded, "I'm up for a cage match if he is lol."

In early July the potential for pain got real when it was reported that a Musk attorney had sent a letter to Meta alleging that it misappropriated Twitter’s trade secrets and hired ex-employees in the lead-up to Threads' surprising debut July 5.

Meta's communications director, Andy Stone, responded to reports of the letter, saying on Threads, "No one on the Threads engineering team is a former Twitter employee — that’s just not a thing."

For now, the dispute seems headed for the cage instead of the courtroom.

The two Big Tech leaders, Musk of Tesla, SpaceX, the Boring Co. and X, and Zuckerberg of Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and Threads, had yet to agree on a date, a format, a venue and rules.

Both seem to have settled on "cage fighting," an informal term that generally refers to the integral role played by the physical barriers in mixed martial arts as they’re used to trap foes, fend off blows and rebound from attacks.

In MMA, thin gloves are worn, elbow and knee strikes are generally allowed, with key exceptions, and wrestling adds another dimension to strategy.

Contemporary MMA started as a bloody, bone-breaking, last-man-standing sideshow in the desert dive bars and barren halls between urban Southern California and Las Vegas, prompting the late Sen. John McCain of Arizona to famously characterize it as “human cockfighting” in 1996.

But money, popularity and television have given the sport a deep cleaning, and bouts are heavily moderated by referees who are usually quick to step in during one-sided beatings.

It seems assumed the Big Tech fight would echo mainstream mixed martial arts bouts like those of Ultimate Fighting Championship, which use a 25-foot-diameter venue called "the octagon." The ring includes an eight-sided barrier made of plastic-coated fencing, measuring 5 feet, 9 inches.

In July, The New York Times reported that Dana White, the president of Las Vegas-based UFC, was trying to organize the Big Tech bout.

After Zuckerberg reached out to him, the publication said, White has had regular phone calls with both men to get them to settle on a date.

PP

[Groundgripper]

Suckaturd vs Lone Skum.

How about a fight to the death? The winner gets shot as soon as they leave the ring. Then we can all get some peace and quiet until another couple of self-centred exhibitionists use their millions to buy themselves some news time to polish their egos...

GG

[PHXPhlyer]

Elon Musk vs. Mark Zuckerberg Fight Confirmed; Money Will Be Donated to Veterans

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/100 ... =editorial

Twitter owner Elon Musk announced Friday that he and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg have agreed to terms on an MMA fight.

Musk tweeted that the fight will take place in Italy, be promoted by his and Zuckerberg's foundations and be streamed on Twitter and Meta.
Post
See new Tweets
Conversation
Elon Musk

@elonmusk
The fight will be managed by my and Zuck’s foundations (not UFC).

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.

He also tweeted that all proceeds from the bout will be donated to veterans.

Musk did not provide a date for the fight, nor did he provide a specific venue beyond Rome, but he tweeted that he spoke with Italy's prime minister and minister of culture, and they worked together to choose "an epic location."

In June, Musk tweeted there was "some chance" he and Zuckerberg would duke it out inside the historic Colosseum in Rome.

According to TMZ Sports, both Musk and Zuckerberg spoke with Italy's minister of culture in June, and sources said they would "love" to fight at the Colosseum.

Per TMZ Sports, talk of an MMA fight between Musk and Zuckerberg began in June when it was reported that Zuckerberg was working on a social media platform to compete against Musk's Twitter.

In reference to that news, Musk tweeted, "I'm up for a cage match if he is lol," and Zuckerberg later responded, "Send me location."

While most initially assumed they were joking, the likelihood of a fight between them continued to grow, and UFC president Dana White told TMZ he felt Musk and Zuckerberg were "absolutely deadly serious" about making it happen.

White also expressed his belief that Musk vs. Zuckerberg could be three times as big as the previous biggest combat sports bout, which was a 2017 boxing match between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Conor McGregor.

As the potential for the fight to happen drew closer to reality, UFC legend Georges St-Pierre offered to train with Musk, and Musk accepted the invitation on Twitter.

Later, UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya tweeted a photo of himself and UFC featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski training with Zuckerberg:


The 39-year-old Zuckerberg was shirtless and looked to be both in excellent shape and ready for a fight.

Assuming the fight truly does happen, Zuckerberg will have a significant youth advantage since Musk is 52 years of age, but Musk is far bigger.

Isabelle Butera of USA Today estimated that Musk is 6'2" and 187 pounds, while Zuckerberg is just 5'7" and 155 pounds, which suggests they would likely have to fight at a catchweight.

Regardless of the tale of the tape and their MMA experience or lack thereof, Musk and Zuckerberg are two of the most recognizable people in the world, and it stands to reason that their fight could be the most-watched combat sports event of all time.

PP

[llondel]

Sorry, got some drying paint I need to watch.

[PHXPhlyer]

Zuckerberg dismisses Musk for avoiding cage fight: 'It’s time to move on'
“I think we can all agree Elon isn’t serious and it’s time to move on,” Zuckerberg said in a post on Threads. "If Elon ever gets serious about a real date and official event, he knows how to reach me."

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/social-med ... -rcna99676

The long-hyped possibility of a cage match between tech titans Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk appears to be no more, after Zuckerberg dismissed Musk for allegedly delaying their anticipated showdown in the ring.

"I think we can all agree Elon isn’t serious and it’s time to move on," the Facebook co-founder wrote Sunday in a post on Threads, the text-based app Meta launched as a competitor to X, the company formerly known as Twitter.

The social media executives have been teasing the possibility of a mixed martial arts fight since June, calling it a "cage match," an informal term referring to wrestling in a closed-in space that combatants aim to escape from.

But in his latest comments on the matter, Zuckerberg said that while he was ready to fight, Musk kept coming up with reasons he couldn't.

"I offered a real date. Dana White offered to make this a legit competition for charity," Zuckerberg wrote, referring to the president of the Las Vegas-based company Ultimate Fighting Championship, who the New York Times previously reported was trying to organize the fight.

"Elon won’t confirm a date, then says he needs surgery, and now asks to do a practice round in my backyard instead," the chief executive officer of Meta continued. Musk previously claimed he may need surgery before fighting his rival.

"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," Zuckerberg concluded.

Musk has not yet publicly responded to Zuckerberg's latest comments, and a spokesperson for X could not immediately be reached.

But earlier Sunday, he tweeted what he claimed was a screenshot of a text conversation with Zuckerberg in which Musk appeared to suggest they meet for "a practice bout" on Monday in the backyard of Zuckerberg's Palo Alto home, where he previously claimed to have built an Octagon, a UFC-branded ring, TMZ reported earlier this month.

Their friendly rivalry intensified when Zuckerberg rolled out Threads last month in a bid to compete with X. An attorney for Musk subsequently sent a letter accusing Meta of misappropriating X's trade secrets and hiring ex-Twitter employees to make Threads.

“I’m sure Earth can’t wait to be exclusively under Zuck’s thumb with no other options,” Musk tweeted ahead of the Threads rollout.

Shortly after, in responding to an X user who joked about Zuckerberg being trained in the Brazilian combat sport of jiujitsu, Musk responded, “I’m up for a cage match if he is lol.”

Meta’s communications director, Andy Stone, responded to reports of the letter from Musk's attorney, saying on Threads, “No one on the Threads engineering team is a former Twitter employee — that’s just not a thing.”

Musk and Zuckerberg are the second and 16th richest people on the planet, respectively, according to Forbes' most recent list of billionaires.

PP

[OneHungLow]

From the Guardian...

Never challenge anyone to a fight. Not even if you think you would win. Especially not if you think you would win. To break this commandment is to invite the wrath of all universal karma down upon your head. It is to engage in the folly of hubris, to break the prohibition against violence, and to set oneself up as a poster child for “getting what’s coming to you”. As a general rule, the people who forge ahead in defiance of this wisdom do so only because they are spoiled, confidence-poisoned children who can only learn things the hard way.

Having $200bn only makes all of these poisonous characteristics more potent. But unlike most things, money cannot protect you from the consequences of this particular mistake.

Elon Musk, who publicly challenged his fellow tech billionaire Mark Zuckerberg to a cage match earlier this summer and has spent the time since doing everything except actually fighting, is a man who possesses every pitiful trait necessary to prompt him to humiliate himself. Ensconced in a bubble of fabulous wealth, he has grown overly intoxicated with his own genius, and makes the error of assuming that his success in business will carry over into success in a physical showdown.

Those who are used to seeing their net worth grow by billions without lifting a finger are susceptible to believing, wrongly, that winning a fight will require little effort as well. At the same time, Musk – like many rich men – has a natural yearning to prove his worth in a way that no one can claim is due only to his money. It may be nice to have life handed to you on a silver platter, but it tends to erode the sense of genuine accomplishment that we all crave deep down.

Indeed, Musk is just a wealthier (and softer) version of a familiar type: the White-Collar Brawler, who stumbles into a fight gym in a quest to Become a Real Man. But while the average stockbroker who trains for an amateur boxing match after work can, at least, walk the honest path towards humility that comes with all the black eyes, busted lips, and slow dawning of the knowledge that you’re not as good at something as you imagined you would be, Musk will reap none of those moral benefits.

He has sought instead to wallow in the shallow end of the pseudo-macho pool: Popping off with big talk about a fight, hollering at top volume about how he has big plans to win, and never, ever, bathing in the painful and humbling sweat that is required to actually do so. He is the insecure kid taunting an angry dog from the safe side of a fence. In his desperation for attention, he never considers what might happen if the gate is opened.

Fights can reveal a person’s character. That would be Musk’s worst fear. As frivolous as all of this jawing has been, it is very much in keeping with a lifetime of acting like a selfish brat and getting away with it. This is a man who is a certified illegal union buster despite having more money than almost anyone on earth. This is also a man who bought Twitter for $30bn more than it was worth and then proceeded to use the company only to display how easily he can be duped into falling for conspiracy theories and unfunny memes. Neither statesman nor business genius, Musk is graceless enough to covet public approval of his manhood but too craven to deserve it. Scientists could not design a man more likely to get whipped in a fair fight.

That, of course, is why Musk will never allow himself to be in a fair fight. This was obvious from the very beginning. His opponent of choice, blank-eyed Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, is another type familiar in gyms: the inhumanly driven data nerd, the type of person who tracks workouts in spreadsheets and pursues physical training with the same unblinking devotion as writing code. It’s possible to gripe about the disturbing joylessness of this type of person, but the relevant point here is that the robotic Zuckerberg would be guaranteed to absolutely dominate a squealing, petulant Musk in the cage.

While Zuckerberg sought to get the fight legitimately scheduled and sanctioned, Musk swanned around saying what a grand show it should be, and then suggested just doing it in a back yard. This stuff – talking loud about tangential issues, clamoring for impossible ground rules, showing up at places where you know your opponent won’t be – is the familiar behavior of someone who doesn’t want to show anyone that he is terrified of getting punched in the face.

It doesn’t matter how long this embarrassing cycle of internet bragging goes on. Musk will never win a real fight. He does not have to fight for anything in his own life, and consequently he doesn’t understand what a real fight is. He thinks that it is all about standing in front of a big crowd and drinking in glory. He thinks that it is a path to masculine validation.

He is too warped by wealth and stunted by immaturity to grasp that a fight is not about winning, but about doing something hard. Something for which there is no shortcut. The willingness to suffer, to lose, is what gives it its value. Ironically, if Musk could experience the cleansing ego-death that fighting can deliver, he would lose his infatuation with the spectacle of it all.

Sadly for all of us, the richest man in America is not built like that. It’s too bad. If he was, he might use all his money and power to do some good. Instead, he just uses it to debase himself in novel ways. His entire personality is a demonstration of the fact that, sometimes, it can do a person a lot of good to get his ass kicked.

Hamilton Nolan is a writer based in New York City and a member of the WGAE