Overview

Justin Bieber Challenges Tom Cruise to a Fight refers to pop singer Justin Bieber tweeting, seemingly unprovoked, that he wanted to face actor Tom Cruise to physical combat in an MMA octagon.

Background

On June 9th, 2019, Justin Bieber^[1] tweeted, "I wanna challenge Tom Cruise to fight in the octagon. Tom if you dont take this fight your scared and you will never live it down. Who is willing to put on the fight?", tagging UFC chairman Dana White in the post. It gained over 25,000 retweets and 119,000 likes.

Developments

Online, Twitter users were confused at the challenge, noting that Cruise, 56, is 31 years Bieber's senior. Popular reactions in this line include a tweet by @jwPencilandPad^[2] that gained over 760 retweets and 3,100 likes (shown below, left). User @epsilontheory^[3] tweeted that despite the age different, they would still put their money on Cruise, gaining over 130 retweets and 1,900 likes (shown below, right).

Conor McGregor^[4] tweeted that if Cruise accepted the challenge, McGregor Sports and Entertainment would host the fight (shown below, left). UFC Canada^[5] simply tweeted the eyes emoji, as if to express interest, gaining over 360 retweets and 6,000 likes (shown below, right). The tweet was covered by BBC,^[6] New York Daily News,^[7] TMZ,^[8] and others. Meanwhile, Memebase^[9] published a collection of Twitter reactions titled "Justin Bieber Challenged Tom Cruise To A Fight And Twitter's Roasting Him To A Crisp."

On June 10th, Logan Paul retweeted Bieber and said, "why you wanna fight a 56 year old… let’s dance 😈" which received over 19,000 likes and 1,300 retweets in a day. UFC fighter Justin Gaethje^[10] then responded saying, "I’ll fight the both of you at the same time" (shown below). Thet tweet gained over 6,000 likes and 800 retweets in a day.

Elder Celebrity Fight Challenges

On June 10th, 2019, Twitter user @Misnomer^[11] tweeted, "Justin Bieber is 25, Tom Cruise is 56. Challenge an actor 31 years older than you to a fight. I’ll go first… Sam Waterston, you’re a punk, and due for an ass beating. Name the place" (shown below). The tweet gained over 34,500 likes and 3,800 retweets in a day.

Twitter users began to respond accordingly. Twitter user @RMSummerlin^[12] tweeted, "I ain't scared of you Jackie Chan Editor's Note: Raymond is very scared" (shown below, left). The tweet accumulated over 1,600 likes and 100 retweets in a day. That same day, @rabiasquared^[13] tweeted, "I've wanted to kick Sally Field's ass for decades and finally this is my chance, SHOW YOURSELF SALLY" (shown below, right). The tweet gained over 2,700 likes and 100 retweets in a day.

Bieber's Response

On June 12th, 2019 uploaded a video of Bieber saying he "was just playing" and that he would probably loose if he were to fight Tom Cruise (shown below). The video was uploaded to YouTube by X17onlineVideo and garnered over 68,600 views in a day.

Search Interest

External References