Twitter owner Elon Musk has accepted an offer from decorated UFC fighter Georges St-Pierre to teach him mixed martial arts (MMA) ahead of a potential cage match with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.
In a Twitter conversation last week, Musk, 51, suggested he would be willing to take on Zuckerberg in a cage match. The 39-year-old Zuckerberg, who has trained in ju-jitsu and recently won gold and silver medals in his first ju-jitsu tournament, accepted the challenge, asking Musk to simply tell name the field upon which they would do battle.
Musk’s Twitter followers were quick to note Zuckerberg’s martial artistry, but Musk, undeterred, told Zuckerberg that he would bring their clash to the Vegas Octagon.
With talk of the Musk vs. Zuckerberg fight becoming more and more specific and serious, St-Pierre jumped in and offered to help Musk compete against his younger and more-practiced opponent.
“@elonmusk 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,” St-Pierre said in a Twitter post on June 24.
If Musk and Zuckerberg truly are to go forward with the fight, St-Pierre’s training could serve Musk well.
St-Pierre has won titles in the welterweight and middleweight divisions and won 26 of his 28 UFC matches, including a 13-fight winning streak.
“Georges has cemented his legacy as one of the pound-for-pound greatest fighters ever,” UFC president Dana White said following St-Pierre’s retirement in 2019. “He beat all the top guys during his welterweight title reign and even went up a weight class to win the middleweight championship. He spent years as one of the biggest names in MMA and remains one of the best ambassadors for the sport.”
Musk finally responded to St-Pierre’s offer on Tuesday morning. “Ok, let’s do it,” Musk tweeted of St-Pierre’s offer.
Musk, Zuckerberg ‘Dead Serious’: UFC President
The UFC president has already begun adding to the Musk vs. Zuckerberg hype.
“Talked with Mark and Elon last night, both guys are absolutely dead serious about this,” White said in a June 22 interview with TMZ. “They both said, ‘Yeah, we’ll do it.’ They both want to do it.”
White said he expects Musk vs. Zuckerberg fight “would be the biggest fight ever in the history of the world.”
“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,” the UFC president added.
After accepting St-Pierre’s offer to train him, Musk indicated he had already started training with Lex Fridman, an artificial intelligence researcher and podcaster who recently became a first-degree black belt in ju-jitsu after 15 years of training. Fridman also recently practiced his ju-jitsu with Zuckerberg and shared their training footage to his YouTube channel on Monday.
“I should mention that I’m a longtime friend of Elon, and a new friend of Zuck,” Fridman said. “And I’m excited to see them take on the journey of being martial artists in their own way, and I look forward to training with each of them.”
The Musk/Zuckerberg Rivalry
The talk of a cage fight between Musk and Zuckerberg stems from Musk’s reaction to Zuckerberg’s involvement in a Twitter Competitor called Project 92 or P92.
While Zuckerberg has been in the social media industry since at least 2004 with the launch of Facebook, Musk is relatively new to the industry.
Musk’s buyout of Twitter in October 2022 came after months of contention between him and the platform’s former owners. Musk had accused the platform’s prior owners of failing to adhere to free speech principles.
After acquiring Twitter, Musk also began reinstating accounts that were banned or limited under the platform’s prior moderation practices. Musk’s Twitter buyout also preceded the release of the platform’s internal documents in a series of “Twitter Files” exposés, which have revealed the platform’s communications with U.S. government officials before making content moderation decisions.
Prior to his takeover, Twitter had awarded blue verification checks to a limited number of users, with the criterion that they had to be “active, notable, and authentic.” Some had complained that this criterion, especially the notability factor, could feel arbitrary. Musk phased out Twitter’s original blue verificaiton check and replaced it with a subscription system that allows users to pay for verification. While the verification became less arbitrary, politicians, journalists, and celebrities who had enjoyed their verified status under the old system risked losing their account verification if they refused to pay $8 per month under the new subscription model.
After Musk’s Twitter buyout, some of the platform’s users began suggesting people migrate over to alternative platforms such as Tribel, a site founded by liberal political activist Omar Rivero.
In May, a Fidelity fund downgraded the value of its Twitter stake to just one-third of what it was when Musk took over the platform, suggesting the social media platform’s market value had fallen dramatically since Musk took over.
Zuckerberg now appears to be adding to the atmosphere of opposition to Musk’s Twitter reign by more directly challenging the social media platform with P92.
P92 is being developed by Meta Platforms, Inc., which Zuckerberg co-founded and which acts as a parent company for Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. During a companywide meeting earlier this month, The Verge reported that Meta’s chief product officer, Chris Cox, called P92 “our response to Twitter.” In an apparent dig at Musk’s handling of Twitter, Cox also said, “We’ve been hearing from creators and public figures who are interested in having a platform that is sanely run, that they believe that they can trust and rely upon for distribution.”
“I’m sure Earth can’t wait to be exclusively under Zuck’s thumb with no other options,” Musk said in a sarcastic June 20 Twitter response to Cox. “At least it will be ‘sane.’ Was worried there for a moment.”
“Better be careful @elonmusk I heard he does the ju jitsu now,” another Twitter user replied.
“I’m up for a cage match if he is lol,” Musk wrote back.