Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg are in the process, along with Dana White from UFC, of trying to set up a cage match. The latest is that they’re trying to set it up at the Flavian ampitheater, AKA the Roman coliseum.
It’s supposed to be a pay per view event, and the estimates are it might bring in as much as a billion dollars. Would you all watch? What do you all think about this?
Disreputable media circus and nothing more. Maybe DJT could be hired to provide the play-by-play from his cell.
Considering the venue, better if we could arrange some lions to spice up the event with some real Olde Tyme Roman gladiatorial carnage. You don’t have to outrun the first lion, just the other man. The second lion? Aye, there’s the rub.
In ancient times in the Colosseum, they would often pit humans against wild animals, including rhinoceroses, hippopotamuses, elephants, giraffes, aurochs, wisents, Barbary lions, panthers, leopards, bears, Caspian tigers, crocodiles and ostriches.
Just what I was thinking: can we get a few tigers or polar bears in there?
First of all, is this something that Zuckerberg wants to do? Because I know Musk is nuts enough to think it’s a good idea but Zuckerberg, weird enough as he is, seems more rational.
And as for pay-per-view, is that saying they’re going to pay us to watch it? Because I don’t see why we should have to pay to watch something involving two of the wealthiest men in the world.
Yes, Zuckerberg is on board as well. I think if anyone stops it, it’ll be some sort of regulatory body. I’m not familiar with how easy or difficulty it is to register / qualify with the Italian fighting commission (or whatever it’s called) to participate in an MMA match.
Is this an outgrowth of some more conventional feud between the two?
AFAIK it’s not a personal feud. I think it’s more of a “since Meta and Twitter can’t duke it out directly, we can fight it out the old fashioned way instead” idea. I think it’s also for bragging rights, since that’s one of the few things that they can’t buy, no matter how much money they have.
A twelve-digit net worth isn’t enough to brag about?
They can both brag about that. I think they each want something that the other doesn’t have. And that isn’t going to be anything that can be bought with money.
I would not watch. I have a hard time imagining something I’d have less interest in watching. You could tell me who won, and I’d probably be unable to remember the next day.
Between Prigozhin vs Putin and Musk v Zuckerberg, it’s been a good month for villain vs villain fights.
What’s the rest of the fight card going to end up looking like? I assume even with top billing as the main event it will only be a 3 round fight not a 5 round main event/championship fight. I watch quite a bit of MMA but I don’t want to just watch one amateur exhibition no matter how interesting.
It does seem like it could be an interesting fight though. When the UFC started it was very much a competition between practitioners of different arts. Now everyone has to have a mixed skill set at the top levels if they want any chance of winning consistently. A fight where the opponents don’t have that breadth of skills could be a fun change of pace. It’s also got some other weirdness. Musk is much older and age differences matter a lot in MMA. Musk is also much bigger and size matters quite a bit too.
I’ve been following since Dana White got involved with their little social media smack talk about a cage fight. I have not been holding my breath but I have been generally hoping it happens. It could be fun.
Do we have to let the winner out?
When this idea first got floated, I said I’d watch, but only if the proceeds went to charity. I have no desire to give either of them my money.
It will probably go to the Trump Foundation.
I think it started out as an offhand joke but then capitalism got its grubby hands on the idea and now it’s pretty much out of their control. For the right-wing nutjobs it’s morphed into “free speech” versus “globalism”, an epic battle of the ages for control of the world’s soul.
I imagine Trump will try very hard to get in on the grift. Maybe as referee? Would he be allowed to travel overseas for the greatest “charity” event in history? But hey, at least the “job creators” will make a fortune on this and maybe some of that will trickle down.
You know who else fought in the Roman Colosseum, right? Of course, Bruce Lee vs Chuck Norris in Return of the Dragon.
I hate to spoil your fun, but the fight’s already off. Elmo’s mommy won’t let him play outside.
That’s another bizarre aspect to this whole thing.