Mark Zuckerberg Told Elon Musk to Send Him Location. The Cage Match Never Happened. Dana White Says the Colosseum Talks Were Real.

Elon Musk has taken extra effort to agitate political opponents since acquiring Twitter, including the progressive Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), who has not held back from answering him. Lately, Musk has been needling a big rival in Silicon Valley: Mark Zuckerberg, whose company Meta is the parent of Instagram and Facebook. The Verge reported that Zuckerberg was essentially daring Musk to keep going.

Reacting to reports that Meta was preparing a rival Twitter app eventually launched as THREADS, Musk responded on June 20 by writing, “I’m up for a cage match if he is lol.” According to The Verge, Zuckerberg replied by posting a screenshot of that tweet with the caption, “Send me location.”

On June 21, Musk wrote, “I have this great move that I call ‘The Walrus,’ where I just lie on top of my opponent & do nothing.”

According to The Verge, the feud traced back to Meta’s plans for a text-based app. During an internal all-hands meeting, Chief Product Officer Chris Cox told employees the company believed creators wanted a version of Twitter that was “sanely run,” a remark that drew cheers as Meta positioned Threads to court users frustrated with Musk’s platform.

https://twitter.com/ReneSellmann/status/1667542932746825728

Reportedly the “king of toxic masculinity,” kickboxer Andrew Tate — who has been facing charges in Romania related to human trafficking and rape — weighed in on the rivalry between Musk and Zuckerberg. He tweeted on June 22, “Meta banned me everywhere for telling the truth about vaccines. But now we can restore honour with a strike at the enemy clans leader. I will train you @elonmusk. You will not lose.”

How the Cage Match Saga Ended

For all the online bravado, the two billionaires never actually stepped into a ring. UFC president Dana White initially insisted both men were “dead serious” and claimed the bout could become the biggest fight in history, and Zuckerberg — a trained jiu-jitsu competitor who completed his first tournament earlier that year — appeared genuinely ready to go. The talks escalated through the summer of 2023, with Las Vegas floated as a venue before Musk teased an “epic location” in Italy, even suggesting on August 11 that everything in frame would evoke ancient Rome and that the event would be run by his and Zuckerberg’s foundations rather than the UFC, with the proceeds going to charity.

The momentum collapsed soon after. Musk said he might require surgery on his neck and back, called the timing “in flux,” and at one point asked to do a practice round in Zuckerberg’s backyard. On August 13, Zuckerberg pulled the plug in a Threads post, writing, “I think we can all agree Elon isn’t serious and it’s time to move on.” He added that he had offered a real date, that Dana White had offered to organize a legitimate charity competition, and that “if Elon ever gets serious about a real date and official event, he knows how to reach me.” Musk later maintained the original challenge had been a joke while blaming Zuckerberg for the fight falling through.

The story took an unexpected turn long after the hype died down. Dana White confirmed during a February 2025 appearance on Tucker Carlson’s show that the negotiations had been real, saying he had been on conference calls with the Italian government about staging the bout at the Colosseum in Rome — though Italy’s Ministry of Culture said it had never offered the ancient arena as a venue. White credited the saga with bringing him and Zuckerberg closer, and the Meta CEO later asked him to join Meta’s board.

For the companion chapter of this saga, see our report on how UFC legend Georges St-Pierre offered to train Elon Musk for the proposed fight. The April 2024 rumor that the bout would co-main Tyson vs. Jake Paul was a gag — see Zuckerberg vs. Musk as Tyson-Paul co-main.

Watch a look back at how the viral feud unfolded below: