You’ve heard of the Thrilla in Manila and the Rumble in the Jungle. Well, how about the Melee in Milan or the Fracas in Florence?
Italy is primed to host the proposed cage fight between tech billionaires Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg after SpaceX chief Musk said Friday he spoke to Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and her government’s culture ministry to agree on an undisclosed “epic location” for the battle.
Italy’s Culture Minister Gennaro Sangiuliano said he had a “long and friendly conversation” with Musk about the event, which would pit the feuding entrepreneurs against each other in mixed martial arts-style cage.
The “epic location” for the planned scrap remains a secret but the Italian culture ministry did rule out Rome after Musk posted “everything in camera frame will be ancient Rome, so nothing modern at all.” Previously, Sangiuliano ruled out Rome’s Colosseum as a venue due to ongoing maintenance.
“We are thinking about how to organize a great charitable event and historical evocation, while respecting and fully protecting the sites,” Sangiuliano added. Musk said that he wants to “pay respect to the past and present of Italy.”
Both sides pledged to give the money raised to charity. While Musk said the event’s proceeds would go to “veterans,” Sangiuliano says that “many millions of euros, will be donated to two important Italian pediatric hospitals.”
The event, Musk added, will be livestreamed on X and Meta, the social media platforms owned by the Big Tech honchos.
So far, the only punches thrown between the two have been verbal, as summarized here.
