"Would easily be the most-watched fight" - Dana White believes Elon Musk vs Mark Zuckerberg would do "triple" the numbers of what Floyd vs Conor did
Dana White is certain that a fight between Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg will generate more money than any fight in the history of combat sports. The UFC president is in talks with both men about making the celebrity fight happen and spoke candidly about it during a recent interaction with TMZ Sports.
Musk and Zuckerberg are two of the most influential individuals on the planet right now. According to Dana White, both men are interested in competing in a martial arts contest. The UFC boss is positive about the commercial prospects of this fight:
“This would be the biggest fight in the history of the world. Bigger than anything that’s ever been done. It would break all pay-per-view records. These guys will raise hundreds of millions of dollars for charity. You don’t have to be a fight fan to be interested in this fight. Everybody would wanna see it.”
White is taking this fight seriously and he will not mind taking the initiative to make it happen if Zuckerberg and Musk are serious.
“Listen… If these guys are serious, I make the fights that people wanna see. That’s what I do for a living. So it they really wanna do it and they’re serious, we can figure out a way to pull this off. I would absolutely positively do this.”
Neither men need to take punches to their head for money. Therefore the fight - if it takes place - would presumably be for charity purposes.
Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk’s popularity goes beyond the combat sports community. Both men are well-recognized around the world. Dana White feels that the fight will attract a far bigger audience than mere fight fans and surpass MayMac in terms of revenue generated.
“I think the biggest fight of all time was Floyd Mayweather and Conor (McGregor) and I just think (Musk vs Zuckerberg) triples that. There’ no limit on how much this thing can make.”
However, even men like professional wrestler CM Punk and 'Iranian Hulk' Sajjad Gharibi, who were perceived to be more suited for the fight game, have failed to impress with their skills in recent history. How well business tycoons and innovators like Musk and Zuckerberg can do is up in the air.
Check out Dana White speaking about the potential fight and more in the video below:
Dana White is confident about Musk and Zuckerberg’s fighting ability
It is for sure an interesting proposition to pitch two of the richest and most influential men of our time to fight against each other on a prizefighting stage. Even so, a common worry is that it would make the sport of MMA look bad with the biggest organization in the world hosting a "freak show" fight. Well, Dana White seems convinced that it would not be a mockery of combat sports.
“Mark takes the sport (of martial arts) very seriously. He trains very hard. He’s actually good at Jiu-Jitsu, he’s good at stand-up and Elon tells me he’s done martial arts, he’s done Jiu-jitsu. He says people might not think this probably but I’ve been in plenty of fights growing up in South Africa.”
The UFC boss sees this fight as an opportunity to build a stacked card to give deserving fighters the attention they need. However, the discussion about the fight is in the nascent stages. Therefore, it is difficult for Dana White to predict the timeline even if the fight materializes at some point in the future.