New twists have emerged in the saga of a proposed mixed martial arts (MMA) cage fight between Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg.
Italy’s Ministry of Culture has dismissed recent reports of its officials offering to coordinate a fight between Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg at the historic Rome Colosseum, according to ministry insiders.
After unconfirmed reports previously surfaced in US media, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Musk, 52, was quick to respond, tweeting, “Some chance fight happens in Colosseum.” The tech mogul added that he needs to "work on my endurance," posting a link to the Colosseum fight scene from the British comedy Life of Brian.
Italy has denied reports that it has offered the 2,000-year-old Colosseum as a venue for a much-anticipated bare-knuckle fight between Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg.
Several American news outlets reported that Italian officials had offered the gladiatorial arena as a suitably grandiose stage on which to host the confrontation.
The tabloid news website TMZ said it would be “the biggest fight in the history of the world in the most fabled fight theatre in history”.
Some chance fight happens in Colosseum
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 30, 2023
Mr Musk himself fuelled the reports by tweeting on Friday:
He then posted a scene from the film Life of Brian in which a terrified man in a grubby toga is thrown into the sandy arena.
A gladiator, armed to the teeth, appears but the man outwits him by running round and round the arena until the gladiator has a heart attack and collapses in a heap.
©Provided by The Telegraph
“Need to work on my endurance,” Musk tweeted beneath the film clip.
But the Italian culture ministry denied on Friday that they had proposed the Colosseum as a venue for the scrap between the two tech billionaires.
“We have had no formal request and no contact from either parties,” a culture ministry official told The Telegraph.
In its heyday, the Colosseum could accommodate 50,000 spectators.
But after centuries in which it fell into ruin and was plundered for its masonry, it now has practically no seating capacity.
Only a small proportion of the original arena is covered by a wooden stage – the rest is bare, allowing visitors to peer down into the underground tunnels and chambers in which gladiators and wild animals were kept before being shoved out onto the sand to fight in front of the emperor.
Culture ministry officials said that the Colosseum is only made available for “high-profile events which almost always have a charitable scope”.
The ministry evaluates every request carefully to make sure that the event is compatible with the protection of the archaeological site. A fight between two tech barons hardly qualified.
“If Zuckerberg and Musk want to stage an event in the Colosseum, it should be a challenge that ends with a hug,” officials said.
They suggested that instead of a bloody physical fight, the rivals should instead consider engaging in a “certamen” – an ancient contest in which contestants have to answer questions about classical history and mythology.
To make the challenge more interesting, the verbal dual would be in Latin, officials said.
In addition, they would be obliged to make a generous donation to the preservation of Italy’s cultural heritage and perhaps a donation to the northern region of Emilia-Romagna, which was hit by devastating floods a few weeks ago.
The high-profile tech titans announced earlier this month that they had agreed to fight each other, with Mr Musk tweeting that he was “up for a cage fight” with Mr Zuckerberg, the boss of Meta, the parent company of Instagram and Facebook.
Mr Musk had previously suggested as a venue the Vegas Octagon, which is used for Ultimate Fighting Championship bouts.
Whether the fight will really go ahead is unclear.
Mr Musk has past form in making statements that are less than serious.
Earlier this year, he told the BBC that he had appointed his dog chief executive of Twitter.
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