Charles Saatchi, whose marriage to Nigella Lawson fell apart after he was photographed with his hand on her throat at a popular Chelsea restaurant, has challenged a columnist at The Spectator to a cage fight. The 70-year-old art collector wrote to the magazine in response to a piece by Taki Theodoracopulos, 77, who suggested that, "expecting a pornographer to have a heart is like counting upon Charles Saatchi to act like a gentleman."

Charles SaatchiWho Would Win In A Fight Between Charles and Taki? There's Only One Way To Find Out.....FIGHT.

Writing in his column on 18 Janaury, Taki said Saatchi had a "coward's bullying manner" though in a vitriolic response in Wednesday's magazine, Saatchi said it was "hapless of you to spring to Nigella's defence last week, as she always found you toe-curlingly vile, and would have been aghast at having you as her valiant supporter."

He went on: "People tell me that in your unreadable column you also like to brag that you are a black belt at karate. Well, me too, old boy. But apparently your 'fights' are genteel affairs, against other soppy geriatrics rolling around the floor in crisp white outfits, in some bit of judokai nonsense.

"Mine take place in cages, 20 feet square, unofficial little events with no gloves, no rules, and the loser being carried out, usually battered to bits. You will understand why I laughed out loud at your schoolyard boast that I should try throttling a real hard case like you."

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Taki has agreed to face Saatchi "any time under cage-fighting non-rules" while The Spectator said it would be "happy" to stage the fight in its garden with proceeds from ticket sales going to the Boxing Academy in East London.  

Editor Fraser Nelson likened the feud to the new boxing movie Grudge Match, in which Sylvester Stallone and Robert de Niro play ageing boxers who are coaxed out of retirement to fight. Let's get ready to rumble.