Following a report that Meta would soon release a competitor to Twitter, the company’s billionaire owner, Elon Musk, challenged Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg to a “cage match.”

The self proclaimed “Host of Twitter’s Largest Spaces,” Maio Nawfal, posted a Twitter thread Tuesday reporting that Meta was planning to release a platform he says will be called “Threads” to compete with Twitter.

“META’s chief product officer Chris Cox described Project 92 as ‘our response to Twitter’ and mentioned that it will allow Instagram users to automatically transfer their followers and user information straight to the new app,” Mr. Nawfal wrote.

The announcement immediately provoked a response from Mr. Musk and his fans that culminated in Mr. Musk saying “I’m up for a cage match if he is lol.”

“I’m sure Earth can’t wait to be exclusively under Zuck’s thumb with no other options,” Mr. Musk said. “At least it will be ‘sane’. Was worried there for a moment.”

Mr. Zuckerberg later responded to Mr. Musk’s tweet with a screenshot of the tweet captioned “send me location” to which Mr. Musk responded “Vegas Octagon.”

The Vegas Octagon is a Ultimate Fighting Championship arena located in Las Vegas, Nevada. When asked about the fight by the Sun, the Twitter press office responded with a poop emoji.

After the exchange, users began to post photos of Mr. Zuckerberg, 39, who is trained in mixed martial arts, pinning opponents. Mr. Musk, 52, appeared to back off from his own challenge a short time later.

“I have this great move that I call ‘The Walrus’, where I just lie on top of my opponent & do nothing,” Mr. Musk tweeted.

Mr. Musk later said “I almost never work out, except for picking up my kids and throwing them in the air.”

Although it’s not clear whether or not the cage match will happen, the two tech giants are certainly on a collision course over the future of social media.

Under Mr. Musk, Twitter has been struggling to stay afloat with many of the platform’s largest advertisers leaving shortly after the billionaire bought the company last year.

In May, Fidelity reported that the company had lost two-thirds of its value since Mr. Musk bought it for $44 billion, reporting that the company is now only worth $15 billion.

The perceived weakness of Twitter has led to a sort of cage match between competitors, with Twitter founder Jack Dorsey launching a limited version of a new platform called Bluesky earlier this year and Meta debuting Threads. President Trump also maintains a presence on Truth Social.