Zuck Calls Off MMA Bout Saying Musk “Isn’t Serious”

Mark Zuckerberg has called off the mooted mixed-martial arts (MMA) fight between himself and Elon Musk, saying the South African businessman “isn’t serious and it’s time to move on.”

Posting on the Instagram-based Twitter (now X) rival Threads, Zuckerberg said that he “offered a real date” and that Dana White, president of the Ultimate Fighting Championship “offered to make this a legit competition for charity.”

Zuck added that Musk had confirmed a date, then said he needed surgery and then asked to do a practice match in Zuck’s back garden.

Musk, naturally, denied that he was unserious about the fight, claiming he was ready to do the fight in Italy when “the arena was ready” and that he would rather have the fight streamed live on Meta’s platforms and X, rather than getting White involved. Zuck said that getting White involved would be a good way to attract viewers and use his fight with Musk to draw attention to professional fighters by serving as the undercard.

Musk even posted a screenshot of a text conversation between himself and Zuck, showing that he was keen for a practice match but that Zuck wanted to do it properly.

This is the full message: pic.twitter.com/UzbKoIkFOc
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 13, 2023

He went on to add that Zuckerberg was “a chicken” and that “he can’t eat at chic fil a [sic] because that would be cannibalism.”

For UFC, the draw would have been obvious — a potentially huge money-spinner that would attract plenty of eyeballs and sponsors to see two of the most important businessmen go toe-to-toe in a rather unbecoming fashion.

For Zuckerberg and Musk, beyond the obvious hubristic appeal of beating the crap out of a rival, the appeal seems harder to ascertain. Zuckerberg is a bona fide MMA fan and regularly trains. Musk, on the other hand, always made the point that he was bigger than Zuckerberg and ergo would win in any fight.

While this was all happening, however, some actual work has been getting done. X reduced the eligibility threshold for its ads revenue sharing platform from 15 million to five million impressions on posts within the last three months. It has also lowered the minimum payout threshold from US$50 to US$10 — around AU$70 and AU$15.

This focus on post impressions, however, has caused X to become something of a content farm. In order to meet the eligibility requirements, users have to post continually. We’re sure this has nothing to do with Musk starting his xAI — a rival to OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT — and the need for its AI to be trained on a large data set.

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