On November 15, Mike Tyson and Jake Paul held the most anticipated boxing match of the year at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. Netflix’s streaming peaked at 65 million households watching the fight, gathering 108 million viewers globally. Although hyped as a jaw-dropping show, it was the biggest disappointment for any audience this year.
The fight was riddled with weak jabs from each. As the fight progressed, Tyson looked incredibly tired. During the AT&T Stadium press conference after the fight, Paul said he was holding back.
“I didn’t want to hurt someone that didn’t need to be hurt,” Paul said.
For audiences, it was extremely boring to watch a match where fighters were both exhausted and held back. While The match was advertised as an all-out battle between the two, it quickly became a staring match with light jabs.
On top of this, Netflix had an incredibly difficult time streaming the match. They assured fans their system could handle a stream with an excessive amount of concurrent viewers, but when fight night came they failed to stand behind their promise.
Audiences trying to stream the fight were constantly disconnected and had to face a buffering screen that was trying to load the most anticipated fight of the year. It upset audiences so much that a man by the name of Ronald Denton filed a lawsuit against Netflix. According to the New York Post, “The class-action lawsuit filed in Florida State court is seeking damages of at least $50 million.”
Jake Paul’s victory left audiences unsatisfied with the results of the fight. Most fans were actively hoping for Paul’s loss because of his track record of challenging mostly retirees. Threatening his legacy, the Mike Tyson challenge was the most disrespectful one yet. Not only was Tyson retired, he was over 30 years older than Paul.
Just a few months before the fight, Mike Tyson had a life-threatening ulcer that led him to multiple blood transfusions. On his official X account he wrote, “Had 8 blood transfusions. Lost half my blood and 25 lbs in hospital.” The fight was delayed because of these health problems, which led Paul’s motives to look even worse. He had agreed to fight an older man with recent health problems, an inspiring legacy, and a lack of fighting experience since 2005.
It brings up the question, was this fight necessary? No one wanted this fight except those who wanted to see Jake Paul lose. No one necessarily wanted to see an elderly man lose his achievements from his prime. No one wanted to see Jake Paul dominate a match all to build his social media relevance.
The key reasons for this fight was money and greed. The Paul brothers have a history of attracting any type of attention just to be talked about. They are marketing geniuses with a past of selling online memberships, books, food products, and clothes all based on the attention they’ve gathered. Not only did this fight bring in the interests of millions all over the world, it also brought in their money.
It was estimated that Tyson will make $20 million from the match. Jake Paul will most likely receive double this amount because of his victory. Netflix gained many new subscribers who made accounts just to watch this particular match. General admission tickets to the stadium started at $78 and VIP packages ranged from $5000 to $7000. It’s safe everyone involved made some type of profit off this fight. In a sense, everyone won. Tyson got paid, Paul garnered a wider audience, Netflix gained supporters, and the AT&T stadium sold 70,000 tickets.
Everyone won, except the audience.
The fight has set a horrible precedent in sports. The legitimacy of the fight was thrown out for a cash grab. Many people suspect Tyson was acting throughout the match. It’s not unrealistic to think that Tyson just required more money and was willing to tarnish his legacy for monetary gain.
Tyson’s last official fight before Paul, was against Kevin McBride in June 2005 where he lost after the 6th round by technical knock out. Immediately after the fight Tyson said that he no longer it in his “heart” anymore, a feeling that he felt early in the start of the fight.
“I’m Just sorry I let everybody down,” Tyson said. “I’m just fighting to take care of my bills, Basically. I dont have the stomach for this kind of work no more… I dont have the ferocity, i’m not an animal anymore.”
Tyson was asked if he would ever fight again and he said no.
“I’m not gonna disrespect the sport anymore by losing to this caliber of fighters.”
Tyson fought two more times since then, however they were not official fights.
This fight with Paul, 19 years later sets the standard that money trumps a legitimate and inspirational legacy.
Paul was respectful towards Tyson in front of the press, continuously telling viewers Tyson stands as the strongest man alive. Even though he speaks respectfully, actions speak louder than words. At the end of the day, Paul would destroy a man’s life achievements to bolster his own reputation.
The only question left to ask is, was it worth it?
