Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg escalate trash talk on ‘cage match’

As many in the Bay Area headed outdoors to enjoy a mini-heat wave, tech billionaires Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg spent the weekend mouthing off on social media about their long-promised “cage match.”

Posting early Sunday morning, Musk said the in-person face-off with the Facebook leader that was promised earlier this summer would be streamed live on X, the platform he owns, formerly known as Twitter. He said proceeds would benefit a charity for veterans.

On his Threads social media account, Meta CEO Zuckerberg responded: “Shouldn’t we use a more reliable platform that can actually raise money for charity?”

The idea for a contest between the two social media moguls was conceived back in June, when Musk fired off a dig about Threads, Meta’s new platform then about to be launched to compete with Twitter. Someone pointed out that Zuckerberg is actually trained in mixed martial arts. Musk, undaunted, fired back that he’d be “up for a cage match.”

In an Instagram story post, Zuckerberg replied: “send me location.”

From there, it was on.

Musk told his more than 150 million followers Sunday that he was lifting weights to prepare.

“Don’t have time to work out, so I just bring them to work,” he wrote.

“I’m ready today,” Zuckerberg sniped back in follow-up posts. “I suggested Aug. 26 when he first challenged, but he hasn’t confirmed. Not holding my breath.”

Neither are we.