Ex-pro kickboxer Andrew Tate says he wants to train Elon Musk to fight Mark Zuckerberg, after the two billionaires this week agreed to go head-to-head in a cage match.
“I will train you @elonmusk,” Tate tweeted on Thursday at 51-year-old Twitter owner. “You will not lose.”
The light-heavyweight champion, currently on house arrest after being criminally charged with rape and human trafficking in Eastern Europe this week, volunteered after being barred from Meta’s platforms last year.
“Meta banned me everywhere for telling the truth about vaccines,” the controversial influencer wrote. “But now we can restore honour with a strike at the enemy clans leader.”
As of Friday morning Musk had not yet responded.
The same day Tate proposed training Musk, the Tesla founder continued to poke his 38-year-old social media competitor about potentially duking it out.
“Let’s go full MMA,” Musk tweeted Thursday night.
A live poll created by USA TODAY with nearly 400 votes cast as of Friday morning projected Zuckerberg to win by a short margin.
“Up for a cage match’
On Tuesday, Musk tweeted he’d be “up for a cage match” with Zuckerberg.
“Send me location,” Zuckerberg, the founder and CEO of Facebook and Instagram parent company Meta, responded in an Instagram story Wednesday which included a screenshot of Musk challenging him.
Musk replied and suggested the Vegas Octagon. The Tesla CEO has not responded to USA TODAY for comment.
Asked about Zuckerberg’s response, a Meta spokesperson told USA TODAY Thursday, “The story speaks for itself.”
The social media exchange is not the first time Musk has beefed with Zuckerberg.
During a chat with Chris Anderson earlier this year, the curator of the TED Talks organization, Musk said he felt as if the Meta CEO was over taking the world with his widely-used platforms.
Billionaire brawl?Techies suit up! Elon Musk tweet challenges Mark Zuckerberg to a fight
Who is Andrew Tate?
Tate, 36, is a former pro-kickboxer and social media personality who was previously banned from various platforms for his misogynistic views. He has more than 6 million Twitter followers, many of those being young men and schoolchildren.
Tate has resided in Romania since 2017.
Earlier this week, prosecutors in Eastern Europe charged Tate and his brother, Tristan, with multiple felony counts in connection to allegations they sexually exploited women in multiple countries including the U.S.
In a statement, Romania’s anti-organized crime agency, DIICOT, said the brothers and two other defendants formed a criminal group in 2021 “in order to commit the crime of human trafficking” in Romania, the United States and Britain, the Associated Press reported.
Officials said the brothers lured young women via false promises, subjecting them to physical violence and mental coercion through intimidation, constant surveillance, control and invoking alleged debts, and forcing them to make pornographic videos.
The Tate brothers, both British-U.S. dual citizens, and the two other suspects were detained in Romania in December 2022. After winning an appeal on March 31, the brothers were moved from police custody to house arrest, the AP reported.
Tate claimed Romanian prosecutors have no evidence and alleged their case is a political conspiracy designed to silence him.
Andrew Tate charged:Controversial influencer and his brother charged with human trafficking, rape in Romania
Contributing: Eric Lagatta
Natalie Neysa Alund covers breaking and trending news for USA TODAY. Reach her at nalund@usatoday.com and follow her on Twitter @nataliealund.
