fight news
Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg's fight started before Meta's Twitter rival – The Washington Post
Mark Zuckerberg has been trying to make himself cool again — and more relevant to a tech elite taken with the online antagonism and offline antics of Elon Musk.
Over the past year, Zuckerberg has appeared on podcasts hosted by provocateur Joe Rogan and AI researcher Lex Fridman, both popular among fans of Twitter owner Musk. He has posted sweaty action shots on Instagram displaying his jujitsu skills. And this week, he accepted Musk’s challenge to a cage fight after news reports on Meta creating a Twitter competitor. The pair have agreed to fight at the “Vegas Octagon,” an Ultimate Fighting Championship arena, although it’s unclear if and when it will take place.
The strategy to pitch Zuckerberg as visionary innovator to a tech-savvy audience losing its enthusiasm for his social media empire has been years in the making, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive internal matters. But Zuckerberg has really ramped it up over the past year, one of the people said, courting the same “tech bros” who have been captivated by Musk — who is suddenly Zuckerberg’s competition in more ways than one.
As Meta struggles with layoffs and its so far unrealized dreams of the metaverse, “I think Mark is also getting a feeling that he is not respected,” said Bhaskar Chakravorti, dean of global business at Tufts University’s Fletcher School. The cage match was “a way for him to show that, ‘Look, he is edgy. He can be a tech bro just like the next guy.’”
I’m up for a cage match if he is lol
Meta has long understood that Zuckerberg is more synonymous with his product than other Big Tech company leaders and even conducted polling on the CEO’s likability and whether Facebook’s best days were behind it, said one of the people familiar with the company’s communications strategy. Zuckerberg, in particular, is sensitive to being perceived as an innovator and interested in what the public thinks.
A post shared by Mark Zuckerberg (@zuck)
Meta’s communications relations team has been positioning him as the company’s chief storyteller in recent years, announcing many of the company’s products directly, the people said. That has also meant putting him in front of journalists and influencers they perceive as influential with early adopters and the tech workforce. This shift also coincided with the company’s plans to rename itself Meta and Zuckerberg’s decision to elevate Global Affairs President Nick Clegg to be the company’s main content moderation defender.
In recent weeks, Zuckerberg has also sought to win back the support of his workers, following tens of thousands of layoffs. The CEO has defended his leadership internally, arguing that he should be judged on whether the company is making progress toward its business goals. And he has spent more time lately talking about the company’s new product investments in artificial intelligence with the goal that they might become more excited about where the company is headed.
Zuckerberg has turned to Instagram to try to promote that edgier image. Three weeks ago, he posted a selfie sporting a camouflaged vest, announcing that he had just completed the “Murph challenge,” a popular exercise challenge that requires a heavy dose of running, pull-ups, push-ups and squats while wearing a 20-pound weighted pack.
Jujitsu, within the last couple of years, has also taken top billing. After it was reported that Zuckerberg was choked unconscious during one of his matches, the CEO contacted the New York Times to deny that it happened, according to the newspaper.
In 2021, he posted a video of himself hover-boarding with an American flag on July 4.
“These founders … are wanting to drive their story directly,” said Brooke Hammerling, a public relations consultant for technology companies. “The CEO story can become bigger than the company itself.”
While Zuckerberg and Musk share many traits as tech CEOs, their public images have diverged from each other in recent years.
Zuckerberg’s image has suffered setbacks after a long stretch of scandals and policy fights over Facebook’s content moderation practices. More recently, Meta has faced major problems at its business that have kneecapped the company’s growth. Its core blue app is losing its appeal among younger audiences who favor newer apps Snapchat and TikTok. Sluggish post-pandemic growth in e-commerce has cut into the company’s advertising business. An Apple change in privacy settings was estimated to have cost the company billions.
Meanwhile, Zuckerberg’s big bet on virtual and augmented reality appears years away from making money, and Meta has been slow to build products in generative artificial intelligence, which has already transformed the technology industry.
Musk, on the other hand, is the richest man in the world, thanks in large part to his stake in Tesla, where he is the CEO. His rocket ship company, SpaceX, has won major government contracts, and his decision to buy Twitter last year and pledge to the right to free speech on the social media platform won accolades from different corners of the tech sector.
Musk’s penchant for tweeting at odd hours and trolling his critics — as well as his crusade against “cancel culture” and the “woke mind virus” — attracted political conservatives and leaders from within Silicon Valley’s reactionary right. More of the contrarian tech crowd followed when Musk slashed Twitter’s workforce, demanded a return to office and promised to build a “based” alternative to “woke” AI, borrowing a compliment from extremely online factions of Twitter.
The two billionaires have long sparred in public. In 2016, Zuckerberg criticized Musk after a SpaceX rocket exploded and destroyed one of Facebook’s satellites that was part of a project to expand internet connectivity around the world. A year later, the two traded barbs over their differing perspectives on the risks of artificial intelligence. In recent years, Musk has also advocated for deleting Facebook and criticized the platform’s role in facilitating the riots at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.
Now, the two CEOs are gearing up for another battle. Meta is exploring building a decentralized social media network as an alternative to Twitter, the news that prompted the challenge to battle from Musk.
Happy July 4th! 🇺🇸
“I think there is another aspect to the viral cage match between the two, which is now many more people are aware of the fact that Facebook wants to start a Twitter alternative. And they are going to want to check it out when it’s announced,” Chakravorti said. “So this is free advertising.”
Zuckerberg’s commitment to the rivalry may continue to be tested.
After Zuckerberg won two medals at his first jujitsu tournament in May, he went on Fridman’s podcast to discuss his interest in the sport and vision for Meta. The two men geeked out on jujitsu, trading opinions on why it’s such a difficult sport and what they have learned about life from participating.
Fridman also pressed Zuckerberg to say something he thinks Musk has done right at Twitter. Zuckerberg said Musk’s decision to make drastic cuts and changes to the company’s workforce emboldened other tech leaders — including himself — who might have been hesitant before to follow suit.
“It was probably good for the industry that he made those changes,” Zuckerberg said.
A fight inside Mankato East High School last week Friday is re-igniting the debate over school resource officers in Minnesota. In a video taken in the hallways of the school building, school officials say about 10 students were involved in that brawl. One of the students assaulted was Nashawn William’s son.
“I was upset,” said Williams. “He had a blood clot in his right eye at the bottom and his upper torso was swollen…They could have killed my son stomping him on the floor, like you all saw the video, they could have killed my son.”
The fight comes after Supt. Paul Peterson told families in an email this month that “SROs will not be physically located at MAPS schools but will be available on an ‘on call’ basis to assist school staff.”
Scott Hare, Director of Student Support Services with Mankato Area Public Schools, said police were called in to break up the fight. He added that if an SRO had been in the building, the situation would have looked different.
“Having an officer on site, they’re right there. It’s very fast. It will take a couple of minutes for other officers to arrive through 911,” said Hare. “An SRO can read the situation and make the correct judgment call on the type of support that they would need to bring in.”
A new law prohibits SROs from placing a student in a face-down position and bans certain holds on the head, neck and across most of the torso. Besides Mankato, at least a dozen other law enforcement agencies have pulled their SROs across the state arguing the law would prevent them from doing their job.
RELATED: Minnesota Chiefs of Police Association meets with attorney general over new school resource officer law
“Once you take that presence out of the school, everybody feels like they can run around because they know the teachers can’t do anything,” said Williams.
Elizabeth Hanke is a parent within the school district and believes the state is overreaching by getting involved with placing policies at schools.
“We need more local government and community involvement. We need to give authority and agency back to our teachers and police officers, and still be able to hold them accountable for when they’re not doing their jobs effectively,” said Hanke.
Last month, Attorney General Keith Ellison said what’s written in the law is clear, however, Governor Tim Walz’s office tells 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS Walz remains open to a special session addressing this matter.
Any person with disabilities who needs help accessing the content of the FCC Public File may contact KSTP via our online form or call 651-646-5555
This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.
© KSTP-TV, LLC
A Hubbard Broadcasting Company
KSTP Follow
The last Fight Week prior to the mega Fulton-Inoue/Spence-Crawford showdowns offers up some interesting action.
FRIDAY
Thompson Boxing sadly bids farewell after 23 years of promoting boxing in Southern California. Their final show is headlined by welterweight Louie Lopez (13-2-1, 4 KOs) against an opponent TBA. You can catch the action on YouTube and Facebook.
SATURDAY
ESPN presents former undisputed lightweight champion George “Ferocious” Kambosos Jr. (20-2, 10 KOs) against Maxi Hughes (26-5-2, 5 KOs) in a twelve round IBF world title eliminator from the FireLake Arena in Shawnee, Oklahoma.
UFC Fightpass has exciting junior middleweight KO artist Serhii “El Flaco” Bohachuk (22-1, 22 KOs) against former world title challenger Patrick Allotey (42-4, 32 KOs) at the Chumash Casino Resort in Santa Ynez, California.
ProBox TV has a pro fight card from the Radisson Victoria Plaza in Montevideo, Uruguay, with middleweight Amilcar Vidal Jr (16-1, 12 KOs) rebounding from his first loss against Domicio Rondon (17-5, 11 KOs).
So we have a fighter from Australia against a UK fighter at a venue on Oklahoma. Looks like this one will go the distance!
My thoughts (re the fighters and venue) exactly but why do you think that this means a distance fight?
Am I ridiculous for thinking that Hughes has a chance in this one, Pete?? He’s been on a nice little run as of late against some decent guys including a former world champion, albeit a blown-up featherweight.
I was just thinking the same. Maxi is on a nice run; If you take away the win against a mentally and physically compromised Teo, has George done much?
Getting whitewashed against Haney twice and close wins against Bet and Selby doesn’t make a great resume. I think Maxi is a live dog.
Don’ think so-has five losses and not much KO power. Kambosos pretty average as well but should have enough to beat this guy.
Only time he got f’d up was vs someone who wore Reyes gloves. As long as Kambosos isn’t wearing those, Hughes may not be psyched out. He like kept the Reyes gloves and showed them off about how much he hated the padding and feel to them. It was in a YouTube video.
I think he does have a chance. I always felt the stars aligned perfect for Kambosos when he fought Lopez. Lopez was overconfident and fought a fight that gave Kambosos a chance. Plus he was better at taking Lopez’s power then we thought which I also think caught Lopez off guard. Other then that, like Streetgang said…what else has he really done that separates him from Hughes? I maybe in the minority but I thought Selby beat him.
So yes I think Hughes could outpoint him. I am not sure if that is my pick but it is a reasonable outcome. Just to clarify when I earlier said it would go the distance I was referring to their KO % …that comment had nothing to do with the venue which I do not think will be relevant as to whether it goes the distance or not.
I remember the Selby fight and thinking it was close but Lee may have nicked it.
I will be pulling for Maxi, George has become a bit unbearable for me.
I think I might just take this week off and just save the excitement for next weekend
Session expired
Please log in again. The login page will open in a new tab. After logging in you can close it and return to this page.
The IBF’s 38th Annual Convention will kick off this weekend at The Fairmont Chicago Millennium Park, in Chicago, Illinois from May 28 – June 1, 2023. After 38 years, the organization will be returning to the Midwest to celebrate the IBF’s 40th year. The IBF celebrated its 2nd Annual Convention in Dearborn, Michigan in 1985 and a return to the region is long overdue. “We are excited for this milestone event and are looking forward to gathering with the boxing community in Chicago and the Midwest,” said IBF President Daryl Peoples.
During the convention the IBF hosts several events and seminars. Notably, the IBF also presents annual awards at each convention, and proudly announces its top award recipients for 2022 to be presented at the Awards Banquet closing the organization’s convention festivities on Wednesday, May 31, 2023. The IBF is proud to announce some of it’s top awards for 2022 in anticipation of the upcoming convention.
Jersey Joe Walcott Award
The Jersey Joe Walcott Award, the organization’s highest honor, will go to Naoya Inoue. In spectacular fashion, Inoue unified the Bantamweight division with a second-round knockout win over Nonito Donaire. Naoya won the IBF title in 2019 and defended six times.
Female Fighter of the Year
Receiving the IBF Female Fighter of the Year Award is Chantelle Cameron who unified the Female Jr. Welterweight division. Cameron put on an exciting performance when she beat Undisputed Welterweight Champion Jessica McCaskill by unanimous decision and became the Undisputed Champion in the division.
Fight of the Year
IBF– Sivenathi Nontshinga vs. Hector Flores
Female – Katie Taylor vs. Amada Serrano
Intercontinental – Mark Heffron vs. Lennox Clarke
USBA – Robeisy Ramirez vs. Abraham Nova
Jessica McCaskill and Murodjon Akhmadaliev are recieving Championship Rings for 3 successful title defenses.
“We proudly celebrate the notable achievements and remarkable careers of our champions, and the boxers that participated in IBF title fights. These are very well-deserved distinctions as all these fighters have worked incredibly hard to attain these accomplishments. We look forward to celebrating them,” noted Daryl Peoples.
-
fight news2 weeks ago
10 Facts You Probably Didn't Know About “Fight Club” (1999) – High On Films
-
fight news Canada4 months ago
Fight News 2023: Exciting Matchups
-
fight news3 weeks ago
Movies in North Texas theaters on Sept. 1 and coming soon – The Dallas Morning News
-
fight news3 months ago
Kota Miura vs. Joker Fight Club: Date, start time, TV channel and live … – dazn.com
-
fight news3 months ago
2023 Detroit Lions Name Bracket Tournament: Round 1, Part 3 – Pride Of Detroit
-
fight news Canada3 months ago
Get the Inside Scoop on Canadian Boxing with Fightnews.ca
-
fight news3 months ago
Boxing News, Results, Schedule, Rankings » Fightnews.com™ – Fight News
-
fight news Canada4 months ago
Get the Latest Scoop on Fight News