Elon Musk accepts Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s challenge to fight

Billionaire Elon Musk accepted a bizarre challenge to a fight from Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Wednesday.

During an appearance on national television, Maduro challenged Musk to a fight after the Tesla executive alleged that Venezuelan election results were rigged and social media users on his platform X, formerly known as Twitter, widely shared numerous videos from Venezuela showing protests in his country.

“Maduro, go away! Venezuelans have decided to end the communist dictatorship of Nicolas Maduro. The data predicts a landslide victory for the opposition, and the world is waiting for you to admit defeat after years of socialism, misery, decadence, and death,” Musk said in a post on X.

In a long, rambling speech earlier this week, Maduro called Musk the “archenemy” of Venezuela and “the representative of fascism and the far right.” The Venezuelan leader also claimed Musk would invade his country “with his missiles and armies.”

Musk has ridiculed Maduro’s claims, posting snide comments in Spanish such as “the donkey knows more than Maduro.”

He added: “I apologize for comparing the poor donkey to Maduro. It’s an insult to the animal world.”

The Venezuelan leader issued a challenge to the tech tycoon in a televised speech.

“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 said.

On Wednesday afternoon, Musk responded with simply two words: “I accept.”

I accept

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 31, 2024

Musk fans admitted they “put money on Elon.”

“2024 is turning out to be one of the craziest years ever,” one social media user replied to X.

“Maduro will just fix the fight too,” another person joked.

“If I win, I will resign as dictator of Venezuela. If I win, I will give him a free ride to Mars,” Musk told tech entrepreneur Mario Nawfal on X.

Musk had previously accepted a challenge to a cage fight with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, but despite the war of words between the billionaires, the fight never materialized.

A week ago, when Musk visited Capitol Hill as a guest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a reporter revived the fight discussion with Zuckerberg by asking the tech executive about his fight.

“I will fight Zuckerberg anytime, anywhere, no matter the rules,” Musk replied in an amused tone.

Zuckerberg responded to renewed speculation about a fight on his social media platform Threads, writing: “Are we really doing this again?”

In response to an interview on X about the fight against Maduro, Musk joked about both his tech colleague and the Venezuelan leader.

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“Maduro is a big guy himself and probably knows how to fight, so it would be a real fight,” the SpaceX CEO said, adding, “Zuck is a small guy, so it would be a short fight, lol.”

On Wednesday, Musk told another X user that Maduro was “going soft.”