Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg's cage fight likely to be hosted in Italy?

Tesla CEO Elon Musk is always full of surprises. He recently suggested that his proposed cage fight with Meta co-founder Mark Zuckerberg is likely to take place in Italy.

In a series of posts on X, formerly known as Twitter, Musk said he has been in contact with the Italian prime minister and minister of culture about hosting the event.

"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. Everything done will pay respect to the past and present of Italy. And all proceeds go to veterans," Musk claimed via tweets.

 

However, contrary to Musk's latest claim that the cage match will be set in "ancient Rome," Italy's minister of culture, Gennaro Sangiuliano, said such an event will not be held in Rome, Variety reported.

"I had a long and friendly conversation with Elon Musk," Sangiuliano said in a statement Friday (per Google's translation). "We talked about the common passion for the history of ancient Rome. We are thinking about how to organize a great charity and historical evocation event, respecting and fully protecting the places. It will not be held in Rome." Sangiuliano previously had said a Musk-Zuck fight would not be held at Rome's Colosseum because of ongoing maintenance work.

It is to be noted that the tech billionaires agreed to a "cage match" face-off in late June. It all began when Musk tweeted that he would be "up for a cage match" with Zuckerberg, who has trained in jiujitsu.

The exchanges have gone viral with social media users debating who would win the bout, while others have posted memes including mocked up posters advertising the fight.

Meanwhile, in the professional world, Zuckerberg's newly launched social media platform "Threads" is competing against Musk's "X".