Ding, ding...seconds out. If you thought placing bets on who would win between Jake Paul and Mike Tyson was a money-maker for the betting industry, imagine the dollars flowing in from a fight between Elon Musk and Vladimir Putin. The President of Russia is known for his formidable physique, so even at the age of 72, and reports about his deteriorating health, we wouldn't fancy our chances against him.
Things are looking pretty rosy between the USA and Russia these days, as President Donald Trump and President Putin have been accused of buddying up to each other for their political gains.
With fears that Russia could turn the internet off for the entire planet, and fresh threats that it could eradicate the United Kingdom, it makes sense that the POTUS wants to keep Putin on his side.
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Considering Russia currently owns the world's largest nuclear arsenal, there are genuine concerns that it could trigger World War III if everyone doesn't play nice. That's probably not going to be helped by resurfaced comments where Elon Musk challenged the Russian leader to a one-on-one fight.
Things were going so well, with Putin seemingly praising Musk's recent endeavours to continue exploring the stars, as well as his 'obsession' with trying to colonize Mars. Comparing the tech mogul to beloved Soviet rocket pioneer Sergei Korolev, these latest comments come after Putin previously referred to Musk as an 'outstanding person'. While we don't know if Putin ever saw Musk's challenge to a physical fight, we don't imagine he'd be too impressed.
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In 2022, Musk tried to make light of Russia's invasion of Ukraine and posted on X, writing: "I hereby challenge Vladimir Putin to single combat."
He then shared a photoshopped picture of Putin riding a bear alongside one of him with a flamethrower.
The ownership of Ukraine was apparently at stake, but thankfully, it doesn't seem like many were taking the world's richest man too seriously. Dmitry Rogozin, head of Russia's space agency, mocked the situation and replied by citing a poem that read: "Young little devil, too weak to compete with me."
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Ramzan Kadyrov, the leader of the Russian region of Chechnya, also waded into the debate and referred to Musk as the feminine name of Ilona. Saying that Putin was a judo expert, Kadyrov added, "Vladimir Vladimirovich [Putin] would look unsportsmanlike when he beats a weaker opponent like yourself," then suggested that he should "transform into a manly Elon from tender Ilona."
If you thought it had all died down and Musk had a lucky escape, he then went to remind us all of the situation in a March 2025 post. Musk was called out for apparently attacking Ukraine and defending Putin. Responding to this takedown, he reiterated: "I literally challenged Putin to one on one physical combat over Ukraine and my Starlink system is the backbone of the Ukrainian army. Their entire front line would collapse if I turned it off."
If you're fearing for Musk's safety, Putin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov spoke about the original post in 2022, saying: "We don't follow it. We haven't been reading Twitter for a long time."
Putin comes with quite the legacy, and alongside being pictured fitting a tracking collar on a tranquillised polar bear, then giving it a hug, during a 2010 trip to the Arctic, there are those wild rumors that he's fought a bear.
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We're not betting people, but we wouldn't risk it with Putin.