It’s been three months since Elon Musk posted on social media that he would be willing to fight Mark Zuckerberg in an MMA contest. In response, The CEO of Meta Platforms channeled his inner Khabib by responding ”send me location.” Three months have passed since then, and a date has yet to be confirmed for the mega fight. As time goes on, we are getting more questions than answers.
Where will Zuckerberg V Musk take place?
Italy is the current frontrunner when it comes to being the country most likely to stage Zuckerberg V Musk. However, there are other potential options, some more realistic than others. If they haven’t done so already, the Middle East may throw their name into the hat. The region has hosted several big fights over the last couple of years and is scheduled to host Tyson Fury V Francis Ngannou later this year.
Las Vegas is an obvious option given that the city’s being known worldwide as the fight capital of the world; the UFC headquarters are also based in Nevada. For similar reasons, New York could be an option and would have the advantage of attracting more viewers from Europe due to the more favorable time zone with the city being situated on the East Coast. Greece, particularly Athens, could be a long shot due to its ancient history when it comes to the Olympics and combat sports, but at this stage, it looks as though Italy would be the most likely destination.
The UFC President, Dana White, has reiterated his desire to be involved in the event. He told Mike Tyson on his ‘Hotboxin’ podcast that he had held talks with the Culture Minister in Italy regarding staging the bout at the Colosseum. Although the podcast premiered on August 9, it would have been recorded a few days prior, and since then, there have been some updates regarding Zuckerberg and Musk’s potential fight.
Gennaro Sangiuliano, Italy’s Culture Minister, said on Friday that he had also held talks with Elon Musk regarding the fight and confirmed that the event wouldn’t take place in Rome, which rules out the Colosseum as a place to stage the contest. Two possible reasons for this would be to protect the historical site and also because the rumors of Italy staging the Zuckerberg and Musk fight have been criticized by Italian politicians. Carlo Calenda, the former Minister of Economic Development, expressed displeasure that the ancient history of the country was being made available to two billionaires.
Tensions between the Meta and SpaceX CEOs seem apparent when reading between the lines of a recent Zuckerberg post on his new social media platform ‘Threads.’ He said that a date hadn’t been agreed for the fight and essentially asked the public to take any news they hear with a pinch of salt unless it comes from him. Zuckerberg is ready to fight anytime and is waiting for Musk to commit to a date.
Who is going to promote the event?
Dana White had phone conversations with Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk shortly after the pair indicated a willingness to fight each other, telling TMZ he would be interested in promoting the event with all proceeds donated to charitable causes. The UFC President intends to pack the undercard with high-level fights involving stars from the current UFC roster, which Mark Zuckerberg is on board with.
His foe, Elon Musk, still needs some convincing. Yesterday, he posted on social media that the event would be managed by his and Zuckerberg’s foundations, not the UFC. Musk claimed that both Meta and X will live stream the event, which drew a response from Zuckerberg. He disagreed, saying he would like a premier MMA organization such as UFC or ONE to be involved in handling the promotion.
The benefit of having an MMA force promoting and broadcasting the event is that they are experts in the field, particularly the UFC. Dana White has over twenty years of experience delivering high-level productions and has been involved in numerous events upwards of one million pay-per-view buys. Since the primary goal of Zuckerberg V Musk is to raise as much money as possible for charitable causes, it makes sense to have the UFC, PFL, or ONE on board.
Should Zuckerberg and Musk organize the fight solely through their respective foundations, how would they get other fighters on board? UFC fighters are prohibited from fighting outside the organization unless given special dispensation. They may allow one or two stars to do this, but it would be highly doubtful they would commit multiple fighters if their brand wasn’t attributed to the event in some way.
Having just Zuckerberg and Musk fighting without the card being filled with other bouts would make it a harder sell, even if it were for charity. If people part with $100, which is the rumored cost for the pay-per-view, they will want an evening’s worth of entertainment regardless of whether or not it is for charity.
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