Billionaire battle in a UFC cage ‘very real,’ says Dana White

The look on the face of UFC president Dana White said it better than his words ever could.

He absolutely believes there is a very good chance he will be promoting a fight between tech billionaires Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg at some point in the near future.

“It’s very real,” White said when asked about the chances such a bizarre spectacle actually comes to fruition as a wry smile slowly formed on his face. “Very real.”

An already simmering beef between the potential combatants may have started to reach a boil this week with Musk publicly threatening a lawsuit against Zuckerberg over his new Twitter competitor.

(BTW, follow me on Threads @AdamHillLVRJ.)

White has indicated he has a date in mind, though it would not be on the UFC 300 card as has been rumored. He has also rightly pointed out that they would be able to find an athletic commission somewhere that would sign off on it, mostly because money talks.

While a sanctioned fight between two aging men with no real experience remains a terrible idea if for no other reason than how incredibly bad the action will look and how boring it would truly be, there’s no denying it would be big business.

There would be a huge charity component, which could do a lot of good.

But not everyone is on board.

UFC legend Georges St. Pierre has agreed to train Musk if the fight does happen. The two had a training session last week.

“It was a lot of fun,” St. Pierre said. “He’s very strong, physically. Much stronger than the average man. And he’s very tough. I didn’t know that in the beginning. He has a judo background. It was an amazing experience.”

Still, investing the time it would take to actually compete in a cage fight?

“Historically, if you look at what he has accomplished, he’s the kind of man that when he puts his sight on a goal, he achieves it. Nothing can stop it,” St. Pierre said. “However, it’s important to realize he’s no ordinary man. He’s extremely busy and most of his time is dedicated to working on things that can change the fate of humanity.”

Musk’s mom Maye will be glad to hear that. She’s been very outspoken on her Twitter account that she is against the fight and will do what she can to make sure it doesn’t happen.

Here’s an idea though: No lawsuit. Let’s just allow the cage match to settle the business beef and have the loser delete their platform.

Rough start

Victor Wembanyama’s week in Las Vegas went from bad to worse when he followed up allegations someone from his security team struck Britney Spears with a horrific shooting performance in his NBA Summer League debut.

The internet was, of course, unforgiving. Several videos were immediately produced with Wembanyama’s lowlights set to Spears’ songs.

Some clever social media users even dubbed Wembanyama with the nickname “Booty Gobert,” a reference to being a less effective version of fellow French star Rudy Gobert.

This would be the time to point out that Wembanyama actually played very well at times on the defensive end and is going to get stronger and more comfortable as he develops.

That’s all true. He’s going to be a great player some day. It’s silly to judge a player’s potential after one game with little practice. But Booty Gobert is just objectively funny.

Dog Day Afternoon

Another Fourth of July brought another year of victories for Joey Chestnut and Miki Sudo, two of the most dominant athletes of their generation.

It also brought a new round of complaints about competitive eating not being a sport. Detractors are focused on the wrong topic.

The real issue with Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest is the exclusionary contracts of Major League Eating that keep some of Chestnut and Sudo’s top potential competitors out of the event.

A real sport would have fans clamoring for a true and open competition.

Where is the outrage?

Contact Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AdamHillLVRJ on Twitter.