Musk and Zuckerberg’s bout gets messier as private messages are leaked

Tensions between Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg have escalated as their potential MMA fight remains uncertain and their feud shifts from public to private.

 Zuckerberg's impressive MMA training footage sparked Musk's call-out, but disagreements over terms have hindered progress toward an official agreement.

 Musk claims that a fighting agreement was almost in place, but Zuckerberg disputes this and accuses Musk of not taking the sport seriously. The potential fight has gained attention from fans and discussions of potential venues.

 Musk and Zuckerberg are arguably the highest-profile rivals around in the tech world with their status in social media largely unmatched. Naturally, this has led to tensions between the pair, and a feud has developed since the latter's development of Threads which has seen talks emerge over an MMA fight between the business moguls.

Both potential fighters have received a multitude of offers from promotions including UFC president Dana White and ONE Championship to stage the event, while current contenders have also offered to train both men. Zuckerberg has already shown his Jiu-Jitsu skills which eventually saw Musk decide to put out a call-out on his X account. However, the pair are now involved in a disagreement over the terms, which has seen their feud turn from public to private.

Zuckerberg had begun training in MMA and had posted regular videos of himself in training, which was understood to be a hobby alongside his expertise in the tech world. This drew a red alert to rival Musk, who has become a competitor in the same field after acquiring Twitter which he has since rebranded as X.

He first wrote: "I am up for a cage match if he is". Zuckerberg then replied to the initial fight proposal, writing on Instagram: "Send me location". Musk then proposed that the pair meet in the UFC octagon, and it was expected that talks would accelerate given UFC kingpin White spoke to both men about his openness to stage a fight in the future.

However, despite the entire fighting world seeming to get behind the event, including discussing the winner and which team they would side with, an official agreement or any kind of talks have not materialised to date. It was initially proposed that the pair would fight for charity, with the showdown being valued at a mammoth $1 billion, but it seems it could be a very difficult event to stage.