Elon Musk couldn’t resist taking a swipe at Mark Zuckerberg while accepting a challenge to fight Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. On Wednesday, Musk responded to Maduro’s challenge—issued after Musk accused him of election fraud—by saying he was ready for a showdown. But in typical Musk fashion, he didn’t stop there.
“Maduro is a big guy himself and probably knows how to fight, so this would be a real fight,” Musk wrote on X (formerly Twitter).”Zuck is a little fella, so that would be a short fight lol.”
The jab at Zuckerberg comes more than a year after Musk first challenged the Meta CEO to a fight, following speculation that Zuckerberg’s company was developing a competitor to Musk’s X. Despite the back-and-forth trash talk between the two tech moguls, the fight never materialized, with Zuckerberg dismissing Musk’s bluster as just talk.

“If he ever agrees on an actual date, you’ll hear it from me. Until then, please assume anything he says has not been agreed on,” Zuckerberg wrote on Threads last August, downplaying Musk’s frequent mentions of the potential cage match.
Even without the Zuckerberg fight, Musk hasn’t shied away from making public challenges to world leaders. After Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, Musk famously challenged Vladimir Putin to “single combat,” although that confrontation also remained hypothetical.
‘Major election fraud‘
The confrontation began when Musk, CEO of Tesla, SpaceX, and owner of X (formerly Twitter), accused Maduro of “major election fraud” following the controversial Venezuelan presidential election.
Both Maduro and his opponent, Edmundo González, claimed victory, but the National Electoral Council (CNE) declared Maduro the winner without releasing detailed results, leading to widespread allegations of election rigging.
Maduro, in a national television broadcast, accused Musk of orchestrating cyber-attacks against Venezuela and blamed him for a supposed “computer hacking” incident at the CNE. “Social media create a virtual reality, and who controls the virtual reality? Our new archenemy is the famous Elon Musk. Do you want to fight? Let’s do it. Elon Musk, I’m ready. I’m not afraid of you, Elon Musk. Let’s fight, wherever you want,” Maduro declared.

Musk responded on X with a bold statement: “I’m coming for you Maduro!” He even joked about transporting Maduro to Guantanamo Bay on a donkey.
Musk’s criticism of Maduro escalated after the election results were announced, labeling Maduro a “dictator” and the election a “travesty.” In response, Maduro accused Musk of planning an invasion of Venezuela, stating, “He wants to come here with his guns and an army to invade Venezuela. Elon Musk, good thing you showed your face because we knew you were behind it all! With your money and your satellites.”
Musk further upped the stakes by suggesting terms for the fight: “If I win, he resigns as dictator of Venezuela. If he wins, I give him a free ride to Mars.”