Elon Musk is in a "no-win situation" if his potential cage fight with Mark Zuckerberg goes ahead—at least, that's according to the tech tycoon’s own father, Errol Musk.
Weighing in on the proposed mixed-martial-arts match, the retired electromechanical engineer explained that the world's richest person risks looking like a bully, or worse, a loser.
"The thing is if this crazy fight goes ahead, if Elon beats this guy, Elon will be called a bully, being so much heavier and taller," Errol Musk told British newspaper the Sun. "While if he loses, the humiliation would be total."
“Elon loses if he wins and loses if he loses,” he summarized. “Wins, he's a bully. Loses, he's a loser.”
The two billionaires agreed to go head-to-head last week after the Twitter owner tweeted that he was “up for a cage match” against Meta boss Zuckerberg.
Zuckerberg seemingly agreed to the proposed fight in a post on Instagram Stories, sharing a screenshot of Musk's tweet along with the caption "Send me location."
UFC president Dana White later confirmed that Musk and Zuckerberg are "deadly serious" about fighting after he spoke to the duo on the phone for more than 90 minutes.
"This would be the biggest fight ever in the history of the world. Bigger than anything that's ever been done, it would break all pay-per-view records, these guys would raise hundreds of millions of dollars for charity,” he told TMZ last week.
Musk's mom weighs in
For many onlookers, a cage match between two of the world’s most famous CEOs would be the sporting event of the year. But the anticipated showdown has caused quite a stir within Musk’s family.
Errol revealed to the Sun that he and his family are “all quite worried” about the prospect of Musk taking on the Facebook founder, who practices jujitsu in his free time and completes intense workouts like the "Murph challenge” just for fun.
“I think Elon has got himself into a difficult situation as a result of high school behavior,” Musk's father added.
Musk’s mom also weighed in on the match in a series of tweets last week that echo the sentiments of her ex-husband.
A verbal fight only. Three questions each. The funniest answers win. Who agrees? https://t.co/qDQ6Ae9lEU
— Maye Musk (@mayemusk) June 23, 2023
"Fight with words only. In armchairs. Four feet apart. The funniest person wins," she tweeted to her son on Friday after he suggested the contest take place at the UFC's Octagon venue in Las Vegas.
Since news of the billionaire showdown broke, Maye Musk has been fighting to prevent it from happening altogether.
“Now the fight has been canceled. Great relief,” she said on Thursday as she shared a fan-made promotional poster for the much-anticipated match.
She swiftly added that her son and his opponent didn't yet know about the fight being called off, but that she would continue to use her platform to spread the news, “just in case."
Whether or not Maye Musk has the power to call off an agreement between two consenting adult men—who are in charge of thousands of workers—is yet to be officially confirmed. But the whole situation is sending Twitter users into hysterics.
“‘I would totally kick your ass, but my mom won’t let me,’ is perhaps the funniest outcome of this whole scenario,” one Twitter user commented on Monday.
