The hotly anticipated fight between Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk may be delayed after 52-year-old Musk reported that he needs to get an MRI and possibly neck or back surgery before he can fight 39-year-old Zuckerberg.

The announcement of the MRI came after a weekend of verbal sparring across the two men's social media platforms, Threads and X — the platform formerly known as Twitter.

Over the weekend, Musk posted various taunts, boasts and jests on X and then Zuck posted screenshots of Musk's tweets with his replies to them on Threads. The two social media magnates jousted over whether X was a reliable platform and Musk was a reliable scheduler.

Some posters believe that Musk may cite some medical worry as an excuse to get out of the fight. It would be understandable if Elon Musk was nervous too since Mark Zuckerberg is a trained and experienced martial artist, and Musk is not.

Over the past several years while Musk posted memes and lobbied for government contracts, Zuckerberg (metaphorically speaking) "studied the blade."

Others, who support Musk, argue that his back and neck troubles are understandable and should be dealt with before he puts himself into a potentially dangerous combat situation.

For both men, posting about the fight is also a good way to keep their names in the headlines, as well as their opposing social media platforms.

The brands of X and Threads, which are now direct business competitors, are each closely associated with their owners. The cage fight, which has been in the works for weeks, would bring the two together in a confrontation that, win or lose, would do numbers for everyone involved.