Recent weeks have witnessed the stupid saga of Musk and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg dancing around the prospect of a mixed martial arts “cage match.” Nominally predicated on Zuck’s newfound passion for Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and the two men’s rivalry in the social media space (Meta recently unveiled a Twitter competitor, Threads, to great fanfare), the event has no set date but has inspired plenty of taunting on both sides — as well as bizarre untruths from Musk.
Musk went so far as to announce on Twitter that he and Zuckerberg had settled on several key details, including the decision to have their respective foundations oversee the match as opposed to Ultimate Fighting Championship. Zuck denied having agreed to this, posting on Threads that he wanted a professional MMA organization like the UFC to take part. Musk also said the battle would take place in an “epic location” among the ruins of ancient Rome, boasting approval from Italy’s prime minister and minister of culture. The latter official, Gennaro Sangiuliano, contradicted this, telling the Guardian that discussions were ongoing, but no Musk vs. Zuckerberg brawl would be held in Rome.
Finally, on Monday, Musk tweeted that during a Tesla full self-driving test that night, he would ask the car to take him to Zuckerberg’s house in Palo Alto to challenge him in person — and livestream everything. Needless to say, that didn’t happen, and a Meta spokesperson brushed off the threat. “Mark is traveling right now and isn’t in Palo Alto,” they said. “Also, Mark takes this sport seriously and isn’t going to fight someone who randomly shows up at his door.”
After so many years transparent fibs and fakery, where will Musk’s tenuous relationship with reality take him next? No doubt he’ll have to once again delay various Tesla products that have missed multiple release dates. He might get the chance to argue that SpaceX rockets don’t harm the local environment, thanks to a lawsuit alleging that a test launch this year started a brush fire and hurled chunks of concrete and metal shrapnel into a Texas wildlife refuge. And his pledge to fund the legal bills for anyone “unfairly treated” by an employer for what they post or like on Twitter should fall apart any minute now.
Still, don’t underestimate his penchant for misrepresenting something totally irrelevant to his professional life, like being “trained” in “no rules street fighting.” If Musk’s lying is predictable, the lies themselves are anything but.