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Dana White, head of Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), confirmed that talks for a possible cage fight between Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk were real.
He said the $150 million fee asked by Rome's Colosseum was the main reason the deal fell through.
White spoke about this at a press conference after UFC Vegas 119, which took place about a week after UFC Freedom 250 was held at the White House.
White said the talks were long and took a lot of effort. He spent two weeks in his backyard trying to make the deal happen.
"That was real. I was literally in my backyard for two weeks negotiating that fight," he told reporters.
He said both Musk and Zuckerberg took the talks seriously. They discussed the venue, weight classes, and fight rules. White also said he had nightly calls with each of them, each lasting about an hour.
The plan was to hold the fight at the Colosseum in Rome, but White said the cost to use the site was extremely high.
"The Colosseum wanted something like $150 million to do it there," he said. He explained that the money would not be a normal rental fee, but would go into a fund to restore historic sites in Italy.
White said both Musk and Zuckerberg were ready to pay the fee. "Those two were gonna put up the money for the Colosseum," he said.
Even though they were willing to pay, White said the fight just could not happen. "It's impossible to do a fight at the Colosseum," he said at the press conference.
White had earlier told Tucker Carlson that he joined conference calls with Italian officials to try to make the event happen. "Eventually, it started to fall apart, but while it lasted, it was fun," he said.
The idea for the fight started in June 2023, when Musk challenged Zuckerberg to a cage match on social media. The rivalry intensified when Meta launched Threads, which competes with Musk's platform, X (formerly Twitter).
Zuckerberg, who had already competed in jiu-jitsu tournaments, took the challenge seriously and trained with former UFC champions. Musk said he talked with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni about holding the fight at a famous venue.
But in August 2023, Zuckerberg said he thought Musk was not serious about the fight because he would not agree to a date. The fight was never officially announced.
Even though the deal fell through, White said he would still consider a UFC event at the Colosseum if enough money was available.
"Anybody that wants to put up the money for UFC to fight in the Colosseum, I'm in," he said.
White made these comments soon after the UFC's White House event, UFC Freedom 250. That event had 17 million viewers in the U.S. and cost about $60 million to produce, which is less than half of what the Colosseum wanted for the Musk-Zuckerberg fight.
Since the first social media exchange, both Musk and Zuckerberg have become much wealthier.
Musk's fortune grew significantly after SpaceX went public, and he is now said to be the world's first trillionaire, with an estimated net worth of $1.2 trillion.
Zuckerberg's wealth has also increased significantly during this time.
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