There’s a long list of grievances from the millions of people who watched, or tried to watch the Jake Paul/Mike Tyson boxing match last Saturday night. That fight, which went the distance of eight, two-minute rounds, set new records for both live and in-person viewership. According to Netflix, 108 million people tuned in, making it the most watched streamed sporting event ever. To be fair, not a whole lot of major sporting events air primarily via streaming, so there’s not a ton of competition. And these numbers pale compared to the billion eyeballs for the World Cup or even the 200 million for the Super Bowl. But still, this is a massive take for Netflix, which is just dipping its toe into live sports. The fight also set records for live attendance, grossing over $18 million and 72,000 fans, making it the biggest ticket take for a fight outside of Vegas.
So that’s the good news. The rest of the details aren’t as pretty. First, and you probably either heard or experienced this, but Netflix streaming technology wasn’t quite up to the task, with widespread complaints of buffering, like you were trying to watch a video on your phone in 2008. It was so bad that one viewer has filed a lawsuit for breach of contract. It’s one of those lawsuits where you hope both sides lose, like when Duke plays UConn in basketball. Second, there’s an ongoing narrative that perhaps this fight wasn’t on the up and up. Meaning the whole affair was staged, more professional wrestling than sweet science. Some of that was based on odd conspiracy theory, like a clearly fabricated script that popped up online that had Paul winning in a dramatic knockout in the fifth round. Or some weird thing about Paul giving Tyson a sign when he accidentally hit too hard. While none of that has been verified, Paul did admit post-match that as the fight wore on, he realized he didn’t want to hurt him. So at the very least, let’s assume it wasn’t an all out effort. Let’s consider it what the Apollo Creed/Rocky Balboa fight was supposed to be in Rocky I – an exhibition. Anyway, Paul landed 78 punches to Tyson’s 18, enough for a decisive victory despite the critique.
I won’t speculate how much I think the fighters were in the tank, or whether it was just a show for the collective $60 million the two got paid for their work. I won’t talk about how Amazon needs to figure out their live streaming infrastructure if they want to stay in this business. I’m guessing they will. What I would like to discuss is both the public’s clear infatuation with this fight and their odd disappointment when it didn’t live up to some very strange expectations. This fight, at its core, was between a 27-year-old YouTube star and a 58-year-old some 30 years past his prime. At best, it’s a really bad idea and probably difficult to watch. At worst, it brutal and dangerous, perhaps more similar to lions and gladiators than a fair boxing match. There was a somewhat depraved voyeurism to the whole affair, almost to see not whether Tyson could win, but simply avoid getting hurt. And I say that with the full understanding of the joy of cheering for an aged champion to find a bit of old magic to shock the world. Heck, it was literally the storyline of the final Rocky movie. But the idea that over 100 million folks thought this was must watch TV – I don’t know, it’s just surprising.
And I guess more surprising was their discontent with what they actually saw. This match was just as bad as it should have been. One guy showing his 58 years – and mind you, I’m not mocking Mike Tyson, which is a bad idea most of the time. Lasting eight rounds at his juncture was remarkable. But he’s 58. And the other guy is as much showman as boxer at a time when MMA is attracting far more talent – and I don’t say that positively. So the complaining that this fight wasn’t what they expected is either a sign of ignorance or some lurid fascination to see someone get really hurt. And perhaps my distain with the whole affair in the first place.
That’s my grievance – that this should have never happened. I suppose you can simply add my complaint to a very long list.