The Rich Fight Different From You and Me

The cage fight saga pitting Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk is stuck in the “is it happening or not” stage, to the amusement and fascination of millions. After saying the bout would be livestreamed on his social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter), Musk announced he’d first undergo an MRI to make sure he didn’t need surgery to “strengthen” a titanium plate in his neck (the consequence, he’s said, of sumo wrestling about nine years ago). “Exact date is still in flux,” Tesla Inc.’ s “technoking and chief executive officer” tweeted of the mixed martial arts matchup. “I’m ready today,” Zuck responded on one of his own social media platforms, Threads, but “not holding my breath.”

Delay may be the better part of valor — given the better physical condition the Facebook founder is in. But it also ups the anticipation levels of everyone who’d like to see a billionaire-on-billionaire smackdown. Usually, these take place via the value of the stock they have in their own companies Musk is the plutocrat to beat in this category; and he increased the spectacle index in a tweet on Friday saying the cage fight would take place in an “epic location” in Italy. As my colleague Adrian Wooldridge recently wrote, physical combat between these tech titans could establish who’s the alpha-est of all the alpha males in Silicon Valley.