Musk Rages at Zuckerberg After Getting Called Out for Trying to Weasel Out of Fight

Who's being the real "chicken?"

Game of Chicken

X-formerly-Twitter owner Elon Musk is accusing Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg of being "chicken" — yes, these are some of the world's wealthiest middle-aged dudes — after the Facebook founder pointed out that Musk has been trying to find every excuse in the book to weasel out of their fight.

In a scathing Threads post, Zuckerberg accused Musk of not being "serious," saying it was "time to move on."

"I offered a real date," he wrote. "[UFC head] Dana White offered to make this a legit competition for charity."

Meanwhile, Musk has been vague-posting about a possible "Gladiator"-style fight in Italy, while stopping far short of actually coming back to Zuckerberg with an actual date. He even tried to argue that he needed surgery, a procedure he said could set the date back by months.

In short, it's the kind of squabbling you'd expect from middle schoolers — a childish game of finger-pointing that is looking increasingly unlikely to culminate in an actual showdown. Can we finally talk about something else? The Earth is literally dying.

Take It Outside

Musk told Zuckerberg via alleged text on Sunday that he was going to be in Palo Alto on Monday and ready to "fight in your Octagon" — yes, he's got one in his backyard —  after Zuckerberg accused him of "hyping something that will never happen."

"Elon won't confirm a date, then says he needs surgery, and now asks to do a practice round in my backyard instead," Zuckerberg wrote in reply in his Threads post. "If Elon ever gets serious about a real date and official event, he knows how to reach me."

Musk's refusal to commit to an actual date — whether that's because of his hectic schedule or being a "chicken" himself — is clearly a sign that there isn't much of a plan. Giving your rival a single day of advanced notice isn't exactly playing it fair, either.

Perhaps we should heed Zuckerberg's advice and forget about the whole thing. Musk has demonstrated on a number of occasions that he doesn't seem particularly serious about meeting his fellow tech CEO rival in the ring — let alone treat it as a sporting event.

Musk's latest promises of fighting in front of an "ancient Rome" backdrop were also quickly refuted.

"I'm going to focus on competing with people who take the sport seriously," Zuckerberg wrote.

Besides, there are a million more important things we could be talking about, like Tesla's battle with regulators over its deadly driver-assistance software, or Meta's decision to block news content in Canada.

More on the fight: Elon Says the Zuck Fight Is Back On, Gladiator-Style