Netflix’s Tyson-Paul Fight Set the Stage for Streamer’s Assault on Live Sports. But Was It Real? | Analysis

Last Friday’s boxing match between YouTuber-boxer Jake Paul and heavyweight legend Mike Tyson was billed by Netflix as one for the ages.

But the streamer’s first major foray into live sports — and first foray into live boxing — was plagued by technical issues for the livestream, which Netflix claimed was viewed by more than 65 million people around the world. And the headline contest between the 27-year-old Paul and 58-year-old Tyson spurred boos from the crowd at AT&T Stadium outside Dallas and a torrent of reactions from fans and boxing aficionados alike, who accused the fighters of staging the fight, which Paul won handily in an eight-round decision.

“I have known this unbelievable athlete since he was 19 years old and what we saw was him giving one of the great Oscar winning performances of all time!” Sylvester Stallone, someone who knows a thing or two about staging a fake fight, said on Instagram of Tyson. “Jake, be grateful, HE SPARED YOUR LIFE!”

Paul, for his part, stopped fighting in the last few seconds of the final round and bowed respectfully to Tyson. “I was trying to hurt him a little bit,” Paul said in the immediate aftermath. “I was scared he was going to hurt me. I was trying to hurt him. I did my best.”

Tyson’s camp denied accusations of a rigged match in a statement to TheWrap. “We understand the outcome of the fight was unfavorable to some; but we refute any misconduct or rigging allegations. The fight was organized in a transparent manner, following all of the sanctioned rules and regulations under the state and streaming platform. As Mr. Tyson has already publicly stated, “This is one of those situations when you lost, but still won,’” his team said.

Netflix declined to comment to TheWrap about online accusations that the fight was staged and would not disclose terms of its deals with the boxers.

Through all the post-fight noise, for Netflix, the four-and-half-hour fight night special, which featured three other matches — including a ferocious women’s Super Lightweight World Championship that left combatants Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano bloodied — emerged as the real winner. With all its issues, the fight had Wall Street analysts salivating this week because it sets the stage for a series of Netflix live sports events over the next two months.

“The fight likely signals to sports leagues/promoters that Netflix can now deliver live viewership at a similar (if not greater) scale than linear television,” Jessica Reif Ehrlich, a Bank of America analyst, wrote in a research note this week.

But could the mediocre in-ring result of a massive global marketing campaign sully Netflix’s push into live sports? The streamer is set to livestream two NFL games on Christmas Day — Beyoncé is the scheduled halftime entertainment for one — and then launch its WWE “Monday Night RAW” coverage in January.

In a response to TheWrap, the streamer said the fight was “unquestionably a worldwide cultural event and communal moment.”

The streamer is paying more than $5 billion for its WWE deal, which runs over 10 years, and $75 million for each of the NFL games. These are big investments in the future direction of Netflix, which is steadily replacing traditional cable television.

“Netflix is certainly going to have to make improvements,” Brad Alfest, managing director of Media and Entertainment at Agora, said. “If they have another event, especially in quick succession … then the brand may actually start to experience some real damage if they can’t figure out their workflow.”

During Friday’s broadcast, the streamer received about 500,000 crash reports, according to casino.org, an online gaming, sports and entertainment site. That implies that more than 236,000 NFL viewers will experience crashes on Netflix next month, since the 2023 Christmas Day games attracted 28.4 million viewers.

A survey by casino.org showed that viewers are concerned, with 79% confessing that technical problems with the Christmas games would negatively impact their perception of Netflix, and 71% saying they don’t consider Netflix to be a reliable platform for live sports streaming.

Netflix said it had worked out its technical issues and planned to add capacity before the NFL games. “We worked quickly to stabilize the viewing for the large majority of members,” the company told TheWrap. “We are not satisfied but after testing the limitations of our tech and ISP capacity, we learned a great deal … We’ve learned a lot over the past year, and we’ll be ready for the NFL on Christmas Day — including the Beyoncé Halftime Show.”

The streamer chalked up its problems to the event’s unprecedented scale — it reached 108 million live global viewers and peaked at 65 million live concurrent streams. The Tyson-Paul contest also generated over 1.4 billion owned impressions across Netflix’s global social channels, the streamer said.

The NFL, after discussing the boxing night with Netflix, was less concerned about the stream’s technical issues. “They are working to learn what went wrong so it does not happen again,” an individual close to the league told TheWrap. “They’ve had a lot of learnings over the past year and are ready to deliver a great experience for NFL fans on Christmas Day.”

From YouTube to the face of boxing

The Tyson-Paul fight was the latest partnership between Netflix and mega-YouTubers. Jake and his brother Logan Paul, 29, are media-exposure masters known for their off-the-wall stunts, semi-serious boxing and WWE careers and for having large followings of mostly Gen Alpha boys.

Jake Paul first became a household name on Vine, the now defunct short-form video app. Paul, who was widely known for his prank content — he once submerged a friend’s car into a pool — secured 5.3 million followers and over 2 billion views before the app was shut down. His social media dominance has continued as Paul currently has 20.9 million subscribers on YouTube, 18.4 million followers on TikTok and 28.8 million followers on Instagram.

Over the years, Paul has leveraged his social clout into a role on Disney Channel’s “Bizaardvark” and has helped found several businesses. Those include the venture capital firm Anti Fund, the fighting company Most Valuable Promotions, the sports-media and mobile-betting company Betr and a men’s personal care brand W, which is currently available at Walmart.

It wasn’t until 2018 that Paul started his boxing career in a match against YouTuber Deji Olatunji. Since then, he has faced off against several bigger-name opponents such as basketball player Nate Robinson, former professional mixed martial artist Ben Askren and former UFC champion Anderson Silva. In 2022, Paul was named one of the highest paid athletes by Forbes after having made $38 million after two fights. After Friday, he has a 11-1 record as a boxer, with seven knockouts.

Along with massive social followings, controversies have followed Paul. Throughout his very online life, he has been accused of sexual harassment, scamming his followers, promoting a cryptocurrency pump-and-dump scheme and he was hit with a class-action public nuisance lawsuit by his Beverly Hills neighborhood. He was also one of eight celebrities the SEC charged with promoting cryptocurrencies without disclosing they were sponsored to do so. (Paul never confirmed nor denied the claims but settled for over $400,000.)

The Paul brothers run their YouTube empires from Dorado, a tony beach neighborhood in San Juan, Puerto Rico, where Jake bought a $15.75 million mansion in 2023. Logan has also boxed professionally and performed as a WWE wrestler.

For them, every event is a promotional opportunity. It was no different on Friday. While Tyson simply walked from the locker room to the ring with an entourage trailing several paces behind him, Paul rolled in on a lime green customized Chevy dually truck with a live pigeon in a cage behind him. His brother Logan sat on his left in sunglasses, occasionally spraying him with a pocket mister and filming additional content on his cell phone.

Once the fighters settled in the ring, the Netflix announcer told the viewing audience that Paul’s silver and chrome fight shorts were “the most expensive fight shorts ever” – worth $1 million for the full matching wardrobe.

A celebrity-studded event

Though promotors did not reveal exactly how much Tyson, who squandered much of his career boxing earnings and once went bankrupt, earned for Friday’s fight, reports from online sources, including DraftKings Network, estimated he would make around $20 million. Paul said his check would be $40 million for stepping in the ring with Tyson. (While Netflix doesn’t disclose the terms of its deals, an individual familiar with the matter disputed the accuracy of the figures.)

Nakisa Bidarian, the co-founder of Most Valuable Promotions, which co-promoted the fight, and Paul’s business manager, confirmed to CNBC earlier this week that both Tyson and Paul made 10-figure paydays.

Among the crowd of 72,300 were celebrities and professional athletes, including Charlize Theron, Shaquille O’Neal, Rob Gronkowski, Josh Duhamel, Joe Mangiello and Joe Jonas.

In the pre-match weigh-in, Tyson slapped Paul hard across the face after the younger fighter stepped on Tyson’s toe.

The actual fight went eight rounds of two minutes each. As it progressed, the Netflix announcing team, which included actor Rosie Perez and former heavyweight champ Evander Holyfield, attributed Tyson’s sluggishness to his age, leaning into the theme that “father time had caught up to Mike.”

It was Tyson’s first professional bout since 2005. And it showed, as the once-dangerous fighter was unable to display the power or consistency he was once known for — or that he had showed in training films streamed by Netflix.

But as the contest progressed into the later rounds, each fighter seemed to noticeably back off of trying to hurt the other.

Paul won a unanimous decision on points. A post-fight tally showed that Tyson only managed to connect with 18 punches, while Paul landed 78 punches.

Fans later broke down the fight in Instagram videos like they were analyzing the Zapruder film of the Kennedy assassination. Several pointed to the moment they thought proved the fighters were not serious about hurting each other: After Tyson, who knocked out 44 fighters in his career (24 in the first round), landed an uppercut on Paul, the YouTuber stared squarely at Tyson and wagged his tongue at him for several seconds. Was it a taunt or a signal for Tyson to ease off?

Speaking to TheWrap, Paul’s business manager Bidarian denied the fight was staged. “When we did this fight, it was signed as either an exhibition or a pro match,” he said. “And it was up to Mike Tyson to decide what he wanted us to pursue with the [boxing] Commission.”

At the post-fight press conference, Paul was asked if he’d taken his foot off the gas in the later rounds. “Yeah, definitely, definitely a bit,” he responded. “I wanted to give the fans a show, but I didn’t want to hurt someone who didn’t need to be hurt.”

Tyson, for his part, complimented Paul’s fighting skills. “I didn’t prove nothing to anybody, only to myself,” Tyson said. “I’m not one of those guys that looks to please the world. I’m just happy what I can do.”

Kayla Cobb and Lucas Manfredi contributed reporting to this article.

The post Netflix’s Tyson-Paul Fight Set the Stage for Streamer’s Assault on Live Sports. But Was It Real? | Analysis appeared first on TheWrap.