Twitter owner Elon Musk said he is ready to throw down with Meta boss and noted martial arts enthusiast Mark Zuckerberg.
Musk, 51, challenged the 39-year-old Facebook founder – who recently won his first amateur Brazilian jiu-jitsu tournament – to a “cage match” after Zuckerberg’s Meta-owned Instagram reported plans to build a text-based social media platform to rival Twitter.
The South African-born mogul poked his younger rival with a tweet Tuesday warning that another Meta-owned social media platform would put Earth “exclusively under Zuck’s thumb with no other options.”
“Better be careful @ElonMusk I heard he does ju [sic] jitsu now,” one Twitter user responded.
“I’m up for a cage match if he is lol,” Musk replied.
Musk trained in Kyokushin karate, taekwondo, judo, and “Brazilian jiu-jitsu briefly” when he was a boy, he said during an appearance on Joe Rogan’s podcast last year.
On one occasion, Musk even shared a photo of himself squaring off against a sumo wrestler.
“Managed to throw him, but it cost me smashing my c5-c6 disc & 8 years of mega back pain!” Musk tweeted last year.
However, he might have his hands full against Zuckerberg, who shocked social media in May with a now-viral Instagram post showing the once-puny tech geek flinging his opponents en route to gold and silver medals at a Brazilian jiu-jitsu tournament.
Zuckerberg later explained his success on the mat during an appearance on the computer scientist Lex Fridman’s podcast, noting that he had been willing to get beaten up while learning the sport.
“Maybe to some degree, your ability to keep doing interesting things is your willingness to be embarrassed again and go back to step one and start as a beginner, and get your ass kicked,” Zuckerberg said.
Musk, for his part, has a history of challenging public figures.
In March, Musk jokingly challenged Russian President Vladimir Putin to “single combat” – and sparked a feud with some Kremlin officials in the process.
His jab at Zuckerberg comes after Meta chief product officer Chris Cox reportedly referred to Instagram’s proposed text-based app as “our response to Twitter” – and drew cheers from employees after pledging it would be a “sanely run” platform in contrast to Musk’s platform, The Verge reported this month.
Cox said Meta has already engaged in early talks with some celebrities about creating accounts, including Oprah and the Dalai Lama, and that the app would be released “as soon as we can.” Internal documents reportedly indicate that Meta’s app will be called “Threads.”
Meanwhile, Musk recently hired ex-NBCUniversal sales executive Linda Yaccarino to lead an ongoing overhaul at Twitter, which is attempting to rebuild its revenue streams after many advertisers fled the platform following his $44 billion takeover.
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