You could be forgiven for thinking the wild world of combat sports in 2023 couldn’t get any stranger. We live in an age of influencer boxing, Power Slap championships, and Conor McGregor knocking out the Miami Heat mascot.
Floyd Mayweather, years after his retirement, is trotting around the globe engaging in novelty exhibition matches where nobody wins, except his accountant.
UFC GOATS GSP, Jon Jones To Coach Elon Musk vs Mark Zuckerberg “Cage Match”
What could be weirder than that? How about a clash of tech billionaires, as Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk propose a “cage match”? And, to top it off, two of the finest mixed martial artists ever to grace the Octagon step up as cornermen as Facebook takes on Tesla, trained by Jon Jones and Georges St-Pierre, respectively.
As do most flights of fancy in the online age, this all began on Twitter. St-Pierre, a two-division UFC champion, declared to Musk that he is a “huge fan” and offered to train the 51-year-old for a potential mixed martial arts bout against Mark Zuckerberg.
“I‘m a huge fan of yours and it would be an absolute honor to help you and be your training partner for the challenge against Zuckerberg” This came hot on the heels of Jon Jones, current UFC heavyweight champion, declaring himself “Team Zuck.”
“You already know I am Team Zuck. Let me know if you need a training partner!” The fight also appears endorsed by UFC president Dana White, who recently declared that “gimmicky fights” are just not what he does.
Clearly Mark Zuckerberg, who has recently taken up Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, fighting Elon Musk, who is 51 and has no combat sports experience, does not count as a “gimmick” in Dana’s book.
White said as much in a recent interview, comparing the bout to the record-breaking Mayweather vs McGregor boxing match from 2017: “I was talking with Elon and Mark and both guys are absolutely dead serious about this.
They both said ‘Yeah, we’ll do it’. They both want to do it. This would be the biggest fight ever in the history of the world.
It’s the biggest fight that could ever be made in the history of the world. You don’t have to be a fight fan to be interested in this fight. Everybody would want to see it.
The biggest fight of all time was Floyd Mayweather vs Conor McGregor and I just think it triples that. There’s no limit on what that thing can make.” Stranger things have happened.
