Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg can fight at Colosseum: Italian gov’t
Looks like a Gladiator sequel could be in the making.
An official from the Minister of Culture has reportedly reached out to Twitter and Tesla head Elon Musk and Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg to coordinate a fight at the historic Colosseum in Rome, Italy.
The Post has reached out to the Italian Minister of Culture for confirmation.
In response, Musk, 52, entertained the idea by tweeting, “Some chance fight happens in Colosseum.”
Both tech moguls have been training with Lex Fridman, an Artificial Intelligence researcher who hosts the Lex Fridman Podcast, a podcast and YouTube series. He also practices Brazilian jiu-jitsu and holds a first-degree black belt.
After Musk tweeted earlier this month that he would be “up for a cage fight” with Zuckerberg, the Meta CEO shot back by posting a screenshot of Musk’s tweet with the caption “send me location.”
Zuckerberg’s team reportedly passed on the message to Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) President Dana White, whose people contacted the Italian Minister.
Italian government officials reportedly offered up the 2,000-year-old venue as a battleground for the historic cage fight.
Considered one the of seven wonders of the world, Musk continued to up the hype around the fight, quoting Russell Crowe’s character in the film “Gladiator,” who famously tells his troops before battle: “What we do in life, echoes in eternity.”
Meanwhile, Zuckerberg, 39, has been training in MMA gyms since last September, with the intent to prepare for MMA debuts, he revealed on June 17. In a May Instagram post, Zuckerberg revealed that he won his first amateur Brazilian jiu-jitsu tournament.
Musk, however, may back down at the advice of his mother.
His 75-year-old mom, Maye, declared that she is very much against the idea of her son getting hurt in the ring.
She took to Twitter this week to share her opposition to the matchup and told people not to encourage it and said she “canceled the fight.”
“Don’t encourage this match!” Maye wrote in response to podcaster Lex Fridman.
In another tweet, she wrote: “Actually, I canceled the fight. I haven’t told them yet. But I will continue to say the fight is canceled, just in case…”
There has yet to be confirmation that the spectacle has been scheduled.
Maye later suggested an alternative.
“A verbal fight only. Three questions each. The funniest answers win. Who agrees?” she proposed.
The Post has reached out to Musk and Zuckerberg for comment.
If the historic amphitheater turns out to be the location, it would be the first time in hundreds of years that a fight has been staged at the arena.
The 50,000-capacity stadium is the largest ancient amphitheater ever built, and is still the largest standing amphitheater in the world, despite its age. It regularly saw fights to the death between gladiators nearly 2,000 years ago. Today its ruins can only host a few hundred people, holding concerts instead of battles.
In 2003, Sir Paul McCartney performed an exclusive charity show inside the Colosseum for an intimate audience of 400 people who paid up to $1,500 each. Apart from that, all other concerts have taken place outside the structure.
