According to a report, a modern-day gladiator match between wealthy internet executives Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg could take place at Rome’s Colosseum.
A few days ago, an Italian government official reportedly proposed the 2,000-year-old site as a battleground for the historic cage fight between the Twitter owner and Facebook founder.
The Minister of Culture is claimed to have approached Zuckerberg about staging the showdown at the site, which is one of the world’s seven wonders.
Musk tweeted on June 20 that he was “up for a cage match if he is,” to which the Meta leader responded on Instagram, “Send me the location.”
The tech titans may have reached an agreement on where to have the fight, with TMZ Sports reporting that both would prefer it to take place at the Colosseum.
While the Italian government has denied offering the venue, Musk has added to the conjecture this morning, tweeting: ‘Some chance fight happens in Colosseum’.
According to TMZ, Zuckerberg’s team forwarded the communication to Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) President Dana White, whose representatives called the Italian Minister.
Musk continued to build the anticipation around the fight, referencing Russell Crowe’s character in the legendary film Gladiator, General Maximus, who famously addresses his troops before battle: ‘What we accomplish in life, echoes in eternity’.
He didn’t stop there, tweeting a drawing from Monty Python’s Life of Brian depicting the corpses of murdered gladiators at the Colosseum with the remark ‘need to work on my endurance’.
However, it is unclear whether the fight will continue, with Musk’s 75-year-old mother, Maye, claiming that she is very opposed to her son being injured in the ring.
She turned to Twitter this week to express her disapproval of the fight, telling people not to support it and announcing that she has ‘canceled the fight.’
While both guys have trained in various types of combat, there has been no certainty that the show will take place.
‘Don’t encourage this match!’, Maye wrote in response to podcaster Lex Fridman who seemed to take joy in the proposed fight between the two billionaires last Thursday.
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…’
The following day, Maye suggested an alternative to the physical bout, a proposal that only involved words.
‘A verbal fight only,’ she suggested. ‘Three questions each. The funniest answers win. Who agrees?’
Musk, 51, is by far the richer of the two and is both heavier and taller than Zuckerberg, 39, but the Meta founder poses a serious threat, due to his keen passion for Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.
Musk suggested the fight with Zuckerberg on June 20 in a tweet and said: ‘I’m up for a cage match if he is lol.’
The Facebook founder, who has enjoyed recent success in a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu tournament, seemed to agree the following day.
He shared an Instagram story with a screenshot of Musk’s tweet and wrote ‘Send Me Location‘ which is a catchphrase associated with MMA fighter Khabib Nurmagomedov.
If that location does indeed turn out to be the amphitheater, it would be the first time in hundreds of years that a fight has been staged at the historic arena.
In its heyday, the 50,000-capacity stadium regularly saw fights to the death between gladiators – but now its ruins could only host a few hundred people and it holds concerts instead of battles.
