Dana White has dragged the Elon Musk vs. Mark Zuckerberg fight back into the spotlight by insisting it was much closer to reality than fans thought.
The UFC boss said the talks went far beyond social media noise, with both billionaires involved in detailed discussions over money, venue and fight logistics.
For a matchup many treated like a meme, the numbers were serious.
Dana White says Elon Musk vs Mark Zuckerberg fight was real
A Happy Punch post shared White’s comments about the failed Musk-Zuckerberg fight and the huge cost of staging it at Rome’s Colosseum.
White said: “That was real. I was literally in my backyard for 2 weeks negotiating that fight. Those two were gonna put up the money.”
He then revealed the venue price tag: “The Colosseum wanted something like $150 million to do it there.”
White added: “I had a blast doing the negotiations with that thing, talking to Elon for an hour every night, talking to Mark an hour every night… [the negotiations were] about the fight, where it would be, weight classes, this, that.”
The clip resurfaced in June 2026, but the fight talks trace back to 2023, when Musk said he was up for a cage fight and Zuckerberg answered with “send me location.”
Colosseum plan turned tech billionaire fight into chaos
The Rome idea made the whole thing feel both massive and impossible.
The Colosseum was completed in 80 AD and remains one of the world’s most protected historic sites, remembered for ancient gladiatorial combat and public spectacles.
Putting a modern cage fight there would have created a surreal link between old combat theater and billionaire tech rivalry. Reports around the talks said the proposed $150 million would have helped fund restoration of historic Italian landmarks.
Even with Musk and Zuckerberg potentially paying, the logistics were brutal. The site is fragile, heavily restricted and not designed for modern broadcast equipment, lighting, production crews or a full combat-sports event.
The fight eventually collapsed after months of teasing, with Zuckerberg later suggesting Musk was not serious enough.
White’s version still makes the failed bout sound wild: for a short time, two tech giants and the UFC were negotiating a $150 million fight at the Colosseum.
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