From Ancient Rome to Zuck’s backyard
Now, things seem to cool off in a rather non-spectacular way (via The Verge). In a lengthy post over at Threads, Mark Zuckerberg explained that “Elon isn’t serious” and “it’s time to move on”. Here’s the original post in its entirety:
That is Zuckerberg’s response to an earlier post from Elon about the unscheduled cage fight. Some may even consider this a “troll move”, since Musk is now talking about hosting the fight in Italy, with “everything in camera frame will be ancient Rome” and assures he has spoken to Italy officials about an “epic location”:
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.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 11, 2023
The Tesla CEO added: “Everything done will pay respect to the past and present of Italy”, “And all proceeds go to veterans”, and “And pediatric hospitals in Italy”. Apart from that, he says he has spent 3 hours in an MRI machine – “Bottom line is that my C5/C6 fusion (spinal surgeries) is solid, so not an issue. 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.”
Another reason for Zuckerberg’s “Elon isn’t serious” post (apart from the “ancient Rome” thing) may be an earlier conversation between the two. Elon showed a screenshot, where he self-invited to Mark’s octagon in his home.
This is how the exchange went. Zuckerberg again asked for a clear date for the alleged MMA fight:
If you still want to do a real MMA fight, then you should train on your own and let me know when you’re ready to compete. I don’t want to keep hyping something that will never happen, so you should either decide you’re going to do this and do it soon, or we should move on.
And here’s the reply from Musk:
I will be in Palo Alto on Monday. Let’s fight in your Octagon. I have not been practicing much, apart from a brief bout with Lex Fridman today. While I think it is very unlikely, given our size difference, perhaps you are a modern day Bruce Lee and will somehow win.
