Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Friday said that the venue and date for the cage fight between him and social media platform X CEO Elon Musk has not been finalised yet. Earlier on Friday, Musk said the fight between the two tech CEOs will be held in Rome, Italy.
He also in a post revealed that he has spoken to the prime minister of Italy and the Minister of Culture and they have agreed on an epic location.
Reacting to the news, Zuckerberg said the actual date for the faceoff has not been finalised yet.
“I love this sport and I've been ready to fight since the day Elon challenged me. If he ever agrees on an actual date, you'll hear it from me. Until then, please assume anything he says has not been agreed on," Zuckerberg said.
He added: “Not holding my breath for Elon, but I'll share details on my next fight when I'm ready. When I compete, I want to do it in a way that puts a spotlight on the elite athletes at the top of the game. You do that by working with professional orgs like the UFC or ONE to pull this off well and create a great card."
Earlier in the day, Musk posted that the UFC would not oversee the fight.
Musk added that he had spoken to Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and the nation’s culture minister Gennaro Sangiuliano regarding the fight and its 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," Musk posted on X.
All this started after Zuckerberg launched Threads to compete with Musk's Twitter. Musk alleged that Zuckerberg copied a lot of its X features.
In June, Musk made it clear he is up for a ‘cage fight’ if Mark Zuckerberg is ready. To which, Zuckerberg responded by saying, “Send me location".
Both Musk and Zuckerberg have been preparing themselves for the fight. Some weeks ago, in an Instagram post, Zuckerberg was seen posing at a training session with two world-class UFC fighters namely Israel Adesanya and Alexander Volkanovski.
On the other hand, photos of Musk while training with Brazilian Jiu-jitsu black belt Lex Fridman emerged a few weeks ago.
In another post on the social media platform last week, the Tesla CEO had said that he was "lifting weights throughout the day, preparing for the fight", adding that he did not have time to work out so brings the weights to work.
Replying to the same, Zuckerberg said that he is "not holding his breath" over the proposed cage fight with Musk, as he revealed that he had suggested a date of August 26 for the contest.
Earlier, Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) president Dana White had said that both billionaires are dead serious about the fight.
The Meta CEO is an amateur mixed martial arts fighter and also trained in jiu-jitsu. Recently, he was seen training with two world-class UFC fighters namely Israel Adesanya and Alexander Volkanovski. On the contrary, Musk is a self-proclaimed street fighter.
But many news reports have said that the fight will be just a gimmick to distract viewers. According to The New York Times, Elon Musk is 52 while Mark Zuckerberg is 39. These men have never fought professionally in their lives before. Thus, New York Times suggests that the fight will simply be for entertainment.