Zuckerberg Says It’s ‘Time to Move On’ From ‘Cage Fight’ With Musk

The will-they-or-won’t-they drama between Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg over a possible “cage fight” appeared on Sunday to finish with a whimper, as Mr. Zuckerberg stated that Mr. Musk’s delays and excuses had rendered the dialogue moot.

In a publish to his nascent social-networking platform, Threads, Mr. Zuckerberg, the chief govt of Meta, wrote, “I think we can all agree Elon isn’t serious and it’s time to move on.” He included the trace of a taunt, “If Elon ever gets serious about a real date and official event, he knows how to reach me.”

Mr. Zuckerberg’s message seemingly ended the suspense round a stranger-than-fiction summer season of pressure between the know-how titans. Less than two months in the past, Mr. Musk mused that he was “up for a cage match.” That was simply earlier than Instagram, owned by Meta, launched Threads as a competitor to Mr. Musk’s Twitter (now renamed “X”).

Whether or not he was critical on the time, intermediaries between the lads started sketching out the contours of a match. Both executives continued to fan the flames; Mr. Zuckerberg posted images of himself shirtless in coaching, and Mr. Musk stated in posts on X that the occasion may occur in Italy.

As is frequent with Mr. Musk — who has a historical past of public pronouncements that don’t come to fruition — momentum towards a match got here in spurts. In posts, Mr. Musk stated the date of the combat was “in flux” as a result of he wanted an M.R.I. scan of his neck and again.

On Friday, Mr. Musk posted that the combat can be managed by the 2 males’s foundations, and that he had spoken to the Italian authorities a couple of location. He didn’t listing a date, saying solely that he wanted “minor surgery” to handle his shoulder and ribs that he stated would contain a restoration of a number of months.

Before Mr. Zuckerberg’s remarks on Sunday, Mr. Musk posted to X a screengrab that he stated was a dialog between the 2 males, displaying Mr. Zuckerberg urgent Mr. Musk to commit.

Mr. Zuckerberg, in his Sunday publish on Threads, nodded to the delays, writing, “Elon won’t confirm a date, then says he needs surgery and now asks to do a practice round in my backyard instead.”

He added, “I’m going to focus on competing with people who take the sport seriously.”