As Musk acquired Twitter and entered the social platform industry, his momentum in the technology circle has gradually increased, somewhat overshadowing the attention paid to Meta CEO Zuckerberg. This may be why he agreed to Musk’s fighting competition invitation. .
Zuckerberg and Musk have the same fighting coach
Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently interacted with each other remotely. Zuckerberg accepted Musk's proposal for a fighting match on Twitter, which sparked heated discussions. Although Musk's mother immediately jumped out and shouted "No fighting", the two technology kids recently found Lex Fridman, a research scientist at MIT and 15 years of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu experience, to practice with them. It seems that the "Fighting Contest of the Century" is really a thing. Friedman's Twitter recently posted the training process with Musk and Zuckerberg. He was impressed by Musk's strength and skills, but at the same time he couldn't help but say that if the two were training martial arts instead of fighting in a cage, the world would be a better place.
Musk is not just talking about competing with Zuckerberg, who has a background in judo. He recently participated in a training course and seems to have begun preparing for the fight.
Is Zuckerberg also becoming Musk-like?
A report in the Washington Post pointed out that Zuckerberg, as CEO of Meta, has been trying to stand out among the technology elite. Bhaskar Chakravorti, dean of the Fletcher School of International Business at Tufts University, said Zuckerberg may have felt disrespected at a time when Meta was facing layoffs and working on an as-yet-unrealized metaverse. It is a way for him to show that he is avant-garde and to show the public that he is also a technology guy. In the past, Zuckerberg was known as a visionary innovator, but his enthusiasm for building a social media empire has gradually faded as people prefer to discuss sensitive issues anonymously, according to people familiar with the matter. But seeing Musk suddenly become his rival in many ways, Zuckerberg has stepped up his pace in the past year to seek approval from those "Tech bros" (generally referring to male technology workers in the United States).
Although Zuckerberg and Musk share many common traits as tech CEOs, their public personas seem to have diverged in recent years. Zuckerberg's image has suffered setbacks due to Facebook's content moderation practices, while Musk often uploads various posts on Twitter to mock his critics, attracting political conservatives in Silicon Valley to follow him. In fact, Meta seems to have long understood that Zuckerberg is more representative of the company than other senior executives of large technology companies, and even more like Meta's products. In addition to being sensitive to being seen as an innovator, Zuckerberg is also very interested in the public's ideas.
Zuckerberg is Meta's representative "product", and his external image is very important
After laying off tens of thousands of employees, Zuckerberg is trying to win back employees by publicly talking about the company's new product investments in AI, as they may be more excited about the direction the company is heading. In addition, Zuckerberg has also shared selfies of himself completing sports competitions on Instagram, trying to promote this more avant-garde image. In the past few years, he has also often shared photos of himself practicing or competing in Jiu-Jitsu. Regarding the fight between the two billionaires, Dana White, president of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), said after a call with the two that they are absolutely serious about the match. White believes that this will be the biggest match in history and more important than ever before. But whether the match will take place remains a question, especially since both of them are amateurs and the match may be subject to supervision, including safety requirements such as wearing headgear. However, whether the match is held or not, both Zuckerberg and Musk have gained the benefits of publicity by talking about fighting matches.