On Saturday night, AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, was allegedly transformed into the epicentre of boxing, thanks to Netflix and Most Valuable Promotions. The headline event? A 58-year-old Mike Tyson coming out of retirement to fight Jake Paul, a YouTuber with a boxing hobby. If you thought this might be a joke, the numbers say otherwise—though Netflix’s servers might not agree.
Let’s start with the stats: 60 million households worldwide tuned in live to watch Jake Paul square off against a man who could reasonably ask for a senior discount at the movies. At its peak, the event hit 65 million concurrent streams. This might have been great news for boxing fans but not for Netflix, whose servers reportedly struggled under the weight of millions of people asking, “Wait, is this real life?”
And while Jake Paul was busy landing punches on a boxing legend old enough to be his dad, the co-main event between Amanda Serrano and Katie Taylor 2 quietly pulled in nearly 50 million viewers. No big deal, just the most-watched professional women’s sporting event in US history. Frankly, Serrano and Taylor deserve more credit—if only Netflix wasn’t too busy figuring out how to keep its platform from buffering during historic moments.
The Paul vs. Tyson gate smashed records, pulling in $18 million—double the previous Texas combat sports record. To put it in perspective, that’s enough to buy a few Ferraris or maybe fund Netflix’s potential server upgrades. This event also became the biggest boxing gate outside of Las Vegas, proving that spectacle and meme potential can fill stadiums just as effectively as actual boxing skill.
If you logged onto X (formerly Twitter) Friday night, you were bombarded with hashtags like #PaulTyson and #Serrano. Eleven of the top 11 trending topics in the US were fight-related. Honestly, the only thing trending harder than these fights was Netflix support trying to explain why their streams kept freezing mid-punch.
I think i got the wrong link for the Jake Paul vs Mike Tyson fight pic.twitter.com/syUjZdZgGh
— ً (@JWepp) November 16, 2024
“Jake Paul defeats Mike Tyson!”
the Mike Tyson in question: pic.twitter.com/Rc9mwVcYiX
— sponge.mp4 (parody) (@spongemp4_) November 16, 2024
“omg did you see what just happened at Mike Tyson vs Jake Paul’s fight”
Netflix: pic.twitter.com/JE5adxv54N
— 🕸️ (@recreatings) November 16, 2024
As if watching Paul go toe-to-toe with Tyson wasn’t surreal enough, the ringside was packed with more stars than a Hollywood premiere. Legends like Evander Holyfield and Shaquille O’Neal mingled with Charlize Theron, Ralph Macchio (yes, the Karate Kid himself), and Rob Gronkowski. It was less a boxing match and more an elaborate excuse for celebrities to network while pretending to care about the undercard.
Meanwhile, Joe Hand Promotions brought the chaos to over 6,000 bars and restaurants across the US, setting a new record for commercial distribution of a combat sports event. Somewhere, a bartender in Wisconsin is still telling drunk patrons to stop shadowboxing in front of the TVs.
With total viewership numbers yet to be released, one thing is clear: Jake Paul punching a 58-year-old Mike Tyson is apparently what it takes to make boxing go mainstream again. Netflix might be claiming victory, but between the laggy streams and the absurd premise, it’s safe to say they’ve got some work to do.
In Jake Paul’s words, “Anything is possible, baby!” And on Saturday, Netflix proved that included breaking their own streaming platform while broadcasting a match that felt like it was scripted for a sitcom.
