Jake Paul easily won Friday’s heavyweight fight by landing effective punches that broke through Mike Tyson’s defense.
Credit...Christian Petersen/Getty Images

Mike Tyson and Netflix Are Sluggish During a Hyped Fight

Tyson looked slow and unsteady in a dull loss to Jake Paul. For many, Netflix’s latest live programming was hindered by buffering.

by · NY Times

The anticipated boxing match between Jake Paul, the 27-year-old social media influencer, and Mike Tyson, the 58-year-old former heavyweight champion, ended in unspectacular fashion on Friday night as boos rained down from the crowd at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

Paul was declared the winner after eight dull rounds during which Tyson looked slow and exhausted. Many fans watching at home were just as displeased: Netflix, which was airing the fight as part of its expansion into live programming, experienced a variety of technical difficulties.

Here are three takeaways from the event:

A Made-for-Streaming Spectacle

The night’s final match was not one to remember, but it capped days of spectacle.

During their weigh-in on Thursday, Tyson slapped Paul across the face, explaining later that Paul had stepped on his foot. After the fight, Paul and Tyson seemed to forgive each other in the ring. “That was a good slap, I liked that,” Paul said.

Paul had entered the ring after a dramatic walkout during which he and his brother, Logan, approached in a slowly moving car. Paul, who has compiled an 11-1 record since his first professional boxing bout in 2020, easily won the fight by landing effective punches that broke through Tyson’s defense. Tyson, who last fought an official match in 2005, fell to 50-7.

Netflix took advantage of the event to show off for its more than 280 million subscribers. People dressed as characters from “Squid Game,” whose second season releases next month, were shown ringside. After one of the night’s earlier fights, Netflix played a trailer from Jamie Foxx and Cameron Diaz’s upcoming movie, “Back in Action,” which will premiere in January.

Though the Paul-Tyson clash was underwhelming, Katie Taylor did defeat Amanda Serrano in a thrilling rematch of a 2022 title fight.

Netflix Takes Its Own Lumps

Netflix’s inexperience with live events showed on Friday night as fans on social media complained about buffering, a fuzzy picture and other issues. The keyword #NetflixCrash was trending on the social media platform X in the United States.

This is not the first time Netflix has faced problems. In 2023, a live episode of “Love Is Blind,” a buzzy reality dating show, was delayed by more than an hour.

Netflix is known primarily for movies, television shows and documentaries, but it has expanded its ambitions into live programming, often through sports and comedy specials. The streaming service will air two National Football League games on Christmas. In January, it will become the exclusive distributor in the United States for “Raw,” World Wrestling Entertainment’s flagship weekly program, as part of a 10-year, $5 billion contract.

Friday’s event was produced by Netflix and Most Valuable Promotions, a company co-founded by Paul. There were technical challenges throughout the evening.

Jerry Jones, the longtime owner of the Dallas Cowboys, needed to switch microphones during an interview. And Evander Holyfield, who twice defeated Tyson in the 1990s (and twice had his ear chomped), could not hear questions from an analyst during a segment.

Celebrities Make the Fight a Show

At the star-studded event, which featured Joe Jonas, Shaquille O’Neal, Charlize Theron and other celebrities in the audience, the actress Rosie Perez served as an official analyst for Netflix. Cedric the Entertainer was also a frequent commentator at the studio desk.

Perez, the Oscar-nominated actress who appeared in Spike Lee’s “Do the Right Thing” and “White Men Can’t Jump,” is a longtime boxing fan who has said she gets to matches early to watch up-and-coming fighters.

“I grew up like the boxers,” Perez, who was born in Brooklyn, told The New York Times in 2018. “I grew up hard knocks. But I learned to fight my way through life. You get knocked down, you get back up again.”

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