Elon Musk said this Friday that the highly anticipated cage match against Mark Zuckerberg will take place in Italy as local authorities confirmed negotiations to hold a “major charity event”.
Although the duel between the two tech tycoons has not yet been officially confirmed, Musk said on his social network X – formerly known as Twitter – that the similarities are moving forward.
“I have spoken with the Prime Minister of Italy and the Minister of Culture”, Musk wrote, referring to Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. “They agreed to sit in an epic location,” he added.
Italian Culture Minister Gennaro Sangiuliano confirmed that he had spoken to Musk about it “how to organize a great charity event to evoke history”but said no battle “will be held in Rome”.
Musk apparently hopes the fight will take place at the ancient Colosseum, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, after posting about the idea in late June.
In a statement, Sangiuliano said any event featuring Musk would raise “an enormous amount, many millions of euros (which will be donated to two important Italian children’s hospitals”).
“It will also be an opportunity to spread our history and our archaeological, artistic and cultural heritage on a global scale”he claimed.
Musk said that “everything done will be a tribute to Italy’s past and present” and that the profits “will go to the veterans”, emphasizing that the event will be managed by foundations led by him and Zuckerberg and not by the UFC. the leading promoter of mixed martial arts (MMA) in the world.
UFC leader Dana White is still trying to get into the event, after telling former boxer Mike Tyson’s podcast this week that he believed the fight would generate $1 billion in revenue.
The two tech tycoons, who occasionally had long-distance intrigue, became direct competitors after Zuckerberg’s Meta launched the Twitter-like Threads platform in early July.
Musk did not give a date for the fight, but said he may need to have “minor surgery” to fix a problem in his right shoulder. “Recovery will only take a few months,” he added.
The richest person in the world has a titanium plate that holds two vertebrae together, but said on Friday that’s “no problem” at the moment.
Zuckerberg, a martial arts enthusiast who has competed in jiu-jitsu competitions, has not yet commented on the matter.
Source: DN
