On Friday, November 15, professional boxer, Jake Paul, defeated boxing champion, Mike Tyson, at the AT&T stadium in Arlington Texas. The splashy Netflix-streamed event drew a record number of viewers, but also experienced technical issues, eventually drawing viewers’ ire.
Originally scheduled to occur during the summer on July 20, the Mike Tyson vs Jake Paul boxing match finally happened after months of delay. The event started at 8 p.m. with the main match starting at around 11 p.m. 70,000 people attended in person including multiple celebrities such as Shaquille O’Neal, Rob Gronkowski and Logan Paul.
During the event there were also other boxing matches building up to the Tyson vs Paul fight. The first of these matches was a battle between Neeraj Goyat and Whindersson Nunes as the opening to the event. It lasted six rounds, was three minutes per round and ended in a tie between the two fighters. The next match featured Mario Barrios vs Abel Ramos. It was more intense than the Goyat-Nunes fight, going 10, three-minute rounds, but also ended in a tie. The last fight before Tyson and Paul was Katie Taylor vs. Amanda Serrano. This match was quite anticipated after Taylor and Serrano’s previous fight where Taylor defended her status as undisputed lightweight champion. Taylor once again was successful in keeping her title against Serrano in a 10-round match with two minutes per round.
The Mike Tyson vs. Jake Paul event broke Netflix records for live viewers with approximately 103 million live viewers, but also broke their streaming servers which has caused some backlash for Netflix. The fight had extremely high hype leading up to the actual event. Paul and Tyson were raising tension between each other in the days coming up to the fight. A day before the fight during weigh-ins, Paul accidentally stepped on Tyson’s foot which ended up aggravating Tyson. In an interview about the matter and how that would affect the match, Paul said “It’s personal. And I don’t care if we were friends before, but this is serious now and I’m knocking him the f—- out.” Jake Paul and Mike Tyson talking smack about each other contributed greatly to the hype of the match, but unfortunately the match left many viewers disappointed.
The event suffered multiple technical issues during the run of the stream on Netflix. Servers were crashing due to being overrun with viewers which ended up backfiring on Netflix.
On November 16 2024, one day after the fight, Netflix was sued by Florida resident Ronald Denton for 15 million dollars over the streaming service quality that affected many viewers as well as viewers who tuned into the stream in different regions. Netflix content officer Bela Bajaria made an official statement addressing the lawsuit. “Whenever we do live events, we want it to go smoothly for every single one of our members,” said Bajaria in his response to the recent controversy. Netflix has yet to have been able to settle the lawsuit
Not only is the lawsuit a point of controversy about the match, but viewers and other professional boxers are upset over the speculation of the match being scripted as well as the disrespect given to Tyson from Paul. The fight was originally speculated to be scripted due to the very anticlimactic boxing match that occurred between Paul and Tyson. But now viewers are trying to dig up proof for any scripts for the fight. A representative from the Texas Department of Licensing sent a message to USA TODAY informing them that “both fighters in good faith performed to the best of their abilities with the goal of winning the fight.” Paul also denied allegations of the fight being manipulated on a podcast with his brother, Logan Paul.
Despite this many still believe that Paul was being disrespectful to Tyson due to their age difference. Tony Bellow, a former heavyweight boxer, encouraged viewers not to watch Tyson and Paul until he “fights someone who is fit to fight and not a grandfather.” Viewers and other boxers are saying that the Mike Tyson vs Jake Paul event was disrespectful to Tyson as Paul is young and in his prime while Tyson is unsuitable to be in the ring anymore. Overall despite the speculation and controversy, the fight still racked record breaking numbers for Netflix’s streaming service as well as being a pivotal moment in Paul’s and Tyson’s careers.
