A bizarre online agreement between tech billionaires Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg to brawl in a UFC-style cage fight has caught the attention of sportsbooks, with DraftKings projecting Zuckerberg as the favourite in a proposed fight for the ages between two of the world’s wealthiest people – but is it actually going to happen?
Key Takeaways
- Musk, Tesla CEO and Twitter owner, tweeted Tuesday that he is “up for a cage match” after news emerged that Meta, Zuckerberg’s company, was looking to launch a website called Threads as a potential direct rival to Twitter.
- Zuckerberg responded “send me location” in an Instagram post Wednesday—a reference to UFC champion Khabib Nurmagomedov’s same words to Conor McGregor in 2018—and a Meta spokesperson later claimed the 39-year-old “is serious about fighting” Musk. DraftKings ran with the idea Thursday, releasing “projected odds” for a potential smackdown between the two, naming Zuckerberg as the favourite.
- The sportsbook set the betting lines at -160 for Zuckerberg and +140 for Musk, meaning $160 would have to be put down on Zuckerberg to profit $100, while a $100 bet on Musk would return a $140 profit.
- Johnny Avello, DraftKings’ director of race and sports operations, explained his reasoning in a blog post on the website: Zuckerberg is 12 years younger, has demonstrated an impressive level of physical fitness and has been training in Brazilian Jiu-jitsu; Musk also dabbles in taekwondo, karate, judo and Jiu-jitsu, Avello wrote.
- Meta’s release of Instagram Threads has added fuel to the fire – but with no update on the proposed cage fight, it remains to be seen if this feud is settled online or in the octagon.
Tale Of The Tape
Zuckerberg may have youth on his side, but Musk, 51, is several weight classes above him, according to the Guardian, and stands six inches taller. He’s also substantially richer: We estimate Zuckerberg to be worth $100.8 billion and Musk to be worth $239.1 billion. Zuckerberg, who has been trained by black belt Dave Camarillo, competed in his first Brazilian Jiu-jitsu event on May 6, defeating an Uber engineer and winning two medals—but he also lost consciousness in one of the fights when he was put into a chokehold. Not only was he knocked out, the New York Times reported, but he started snoring while in a chokehold (Zuckerberg later denied passing out). Unlike his MMA-loving opponent, Musk told Twitter users he “almost never works out.”
Contra
Costa Rica-based sportsbook Bovada named Musk as the favorite at -150 odds, but did not give a reason why. Betting through overseas sportsbooks is not legal in the United States.
Key Background
Celebrity fights aren’t exactly new, but they’ve seemingly grown in popularity in recent years, thanks in part to the fledgling career of YouTuber Jake Paul, which began in 2018 with a fight against fellow social media star KSI. Mike Tyson and Roy Jones recently returned to the ring under Tyson’s Legends Only League, and Paul also fought NBA player Nate Robinson in a viral event. Snoop Dogg has partnered with Triller, a social video platform, to start his own celebrity boxing promotion named The Fight Club.
