Chris Christie says he’d beat Trump in a real fight: ‘I’d kick his ass’

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie believes he would win a brawl against former President Donald Trump if the two fought toe-to-toe in a UFC-style cage match.

The 2024 Republican candidate told Piers Morgan in a Fox News interview that aired Thursday night he was eager for a grudge match with the GOP frontrunner — either with words or fists and feet.

“Talking of fighting, if you and Trump got in the ring — he loves his UFC and stuff like that, right? — if you got in the octagon, you and him, who would win?” Morgan asked.

“Come on,” the heavyset 60-year-old responded with a grin. “Guy is 78 years old [actually 77]. I’d kick his ass.”

The retort prompted laughter from the Englishman, who noted: “We know that Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg are apparently going to get in the ring.”

The Tesla CEO and Meta CEO shared similar photos of training sessions with mixed martial artists earlier this month, as both have maintained a cage fight would settle a dispute over the superiority of Twitter, which Musk purchased last year, and Threads, a competing social media site launched last month.

“Yeah, I can’t wait for that one,” Christie replied. “Did you see that picture of Zuckerberg? Looking pretty buff. If I were Elon, I’d be a little bit worried.”

“Would you be prepared to be the undercard, you against Trump?” Morgan followed up.

“I’ll fight Donald Trump anywhere he wants, in any arena he wants — whether it’s on a debate stage, or in the octagon,” Christie said.

Christie who is currently in a distant seventh place in the GOP primary, according to the RealClearPolitics polling average, said Wednesday his campaign had met donor requirements for the Republican National Committee’s Aug. 23 debate in Milwaukee, Wis.

He joins five other Republican presidential hopefuls in having reached the donor threshold, including Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, 44, former Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, 51, South Carolina GOP Sen. Tim Scott, 57, and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, 37.

Scott’s campaign also announced on Wednesday that it had taken in more than 75,000 donations from 53,000 unique donors across every US state.

The RNC, which is sponsoring the August debate, has also required all candidates to register at least 1% support in three independent national polls or two national polls and one independent poll from two of four early voting states — Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina.

The polls must be in the field between July 1 and Aug. 21 and have surveyed at least 800 registered likely Republican primary voters.

Christie is the seventh candidate on track to qualify for the polling requirement with 2.6% support in the RealClearPolitics average, behind Trump (53%), DeSantis (20.6%), former Vice President Mike Pence (6.3%), Haley (3.4%), Scott (3.2%) and Ramaswamy (3.1%).

But the former governor has not committed to supporting the Republican Party’s eventual nominee, the most-contested requirement the RNC has imposed on candidates in order to debate.

“I’ve said that I think the loyalty pledge is a dumb idea, but it is a requirement to get on the stage,” Christie told CNN’s Anderson Cooper on Wednesday. “We all signed the pledge in 2016 also, you may recall, and at the next debate, after we all signed the pledge, one of the questioners said, ‘You all signed this pledge, would you reaffirm it tonight by raising your hand?’ And nine of us raised our hands, including me, and Donald Trump didn’t.”

Trump has also not committed to supporting the pledge, while DeSantis has said he will join debaters in August “regardless” of the former president’s attendance.

The ex-commander-in-chief has ripped Christie for being a “failed governor” and ridiculed his weight problem by posting an edited video of the candidate speaking to voters from a buffet.

Pence, Haley and Scott have also committed to signing the RNC pledge of support for the eventual nominee.

The pledge is the final step for qualifying to debate at any RNC event, a source with knowledge of the criteria told The Post.