A cage match between two of the world’s richest men, Twitter’s owner, Elon Musk, and Facebook’s founder, Mark Zuckerberg, might actually happen as soon as late August despite initially being considered a joke.

Over the weekend, Mr. Musk tweeted that there is “some chance the fight happens in the Colosseum,” adding: “Need to work on my endurance.” He linked to a scene at the Colosseum from Monty Python’s “The Life of Brian.”

The tweet was a jest referencing a challenge Mr. Musk issued to Mr. Zuckerberg after Meta announced that it would be launching a competitor to Mr. Musk’s Twitter.

“I’m sure Earth can’t wait to be exclusively under Zuck’s thumb with no other options,” Mr. Musk said in late June. “I’m up for a cage match if he is lol.”

Mr. Zuckerberg, who has trained in Jiu Jitsu, responded to Mr. Musk with a quote from one of the United Fighting Championship’s most venerated athletes, Khabib Nurmagomedov, saying, “Send Me Location.”

Mr. Musk later appeared to brush off the confrontation, joking about a move he calls “‘The Walrus,’ where I just lie on top of my opponent and do nothing.”

Reporting from the New York Times, though, suggests that Mr. Zuckerberg intends to follow through with the fight and contacted the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s president, Dana White, shortly after the online exchange.

Since the exchange in June, Mr. White has been acting as a go-between for the two billionaires, telling the Times, “They both want to do it.”

Podcaster Lex Fridman has also posted photos of himself training with Mr. Musk, who despite being significantly larger than Mr. Zuckerberg would enter the fight at a training deficit to Mr. Zuckerberg.

While Mr. Zuckerberg has competed in public martial arts tournaments, entering his first competition in May, Mr. Musk has only publicly wrestled against a sumo wrestler, a fight that resulted in a back injury that he needed surgery to remedy.

Already, the news of a potential fight has fans of each billionaire egging them on, and some celebrities, like kickboxer Andrew Tate, offering to help train Mr. Musk, saying, “I will train you,” and adding, “You will not lose.”

“Meta banned me everywhere for telling the truth about vaccines,” Mr. Tate said. “But now we can restore honor with a strike at the enemy clan’s leader.”

If it happens, the fight is reportedly expected to raise money for charity, though it’s not yet clear whether it will even happen and what charity or charities stand to benefit. It’s also not clear where it would be; Las Vegas has been floated as a potential location.

Meta did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Sun. The Twitter press office responded with a poop emoji.