After making national headlines for seemingly challenging Tom Cruise to a fight, pop star Justin Bieber now says he totally didn't mean it. Earlier this week, Bieber posted a peculiar message on his Twitter account, straight up saying he wants to challenge Cruise to a "fight in the octagon." The message also suggested Cruise was scared if he didn't accept, a status which Bieber would apparently never let live him down. The controversial music star also tagged UFC's Dana White asking if he'd host the potential bout, and even Conor McGregor got in on the story by offering to host the brawl himself. However, you might want to hold off on placing your bets, as Bieber is now saying he wasn't serious at all about the challenge in a new tweet.

On Wednesday, Justin Bieber was personally asked about the tweet in light of all of the buzz it's been getting. That's when the Biebs officially shot the whole thing down. "I was just playing," Bieber said about the Tom Cruise challenge, adding, "I think he would probably whoop my ass." According to Bieber, he had recently seen Cruise on television, leading to him writing the "random tweet." To be clear, there is no actual challenge for a fight against Cruise, and Bieber himself is now quick to admit he wouldn't last too long if it were to actually happen. For what it's worth, Cruise never officially responded to the challenge, and doesn't seem to have taken it seriously either.

Such a random fight between two celebrities like Justin Bieber and Tom Cruise seems akin to something you would see on the classic MTV series Celebrity Deathmatch. During its run, that show became a hit for the network by presenting fights to the death between various famous people using claymation. This included such battles as Mariah Carey vs. Jim Carrey, Chris Rock vs. Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Bette Midler vs. Cher, and Kevin Costner vs. Kevin Smith. Last year, it was announced MTV Studios was planning a revival of the show, and given all of this attention, it wouldn't be surprising to see Bieber vs. Cruise featured on the program.

Don't count on seeing Cruise in the octagon, but you will certainly see him back on the big screen soon enough. The mega star actor will be reprising his classic role of Pete "Maverick" Mitchell for the upcoming sequel Top Gun: Maverick, continuing the events of the original movie from 1986. Val Kilmer will also be coming back to reprise the role of Thomas "Iceman" Kazansky. Directed by Joseph Kosinski, the movie will be released by Paramount Pictures on June 26, 2020.

We apparently aren't going to see the dream match happen in real life, but it's certainly been a fun few days thinking about it. Going by the comments on social media and Bieber's own insistence he wouldn't stand a chance, chances are the fight would be over very quickly anyway. While Cruise didn't weigh in on the story himself, it would seem most likely he'd simply laugh it off and ignore it. This information comes to us from TMZ.