Mike Tyson and Jake Paul are going to box live on Netflix. Here's how a heavyweight champion and a YouTuber-turned-boxer ended up fighting.
Mike Tyson will fight Jake Paul in Netflix's first-ever professional sports livestream on Friday.
After refining its livestreaming capability with several events this year and last, Netflix is now trying to become a contender in the live sports space.
In January, The New York Times reported that Netflix spent over $5 billion to get exclusive streaming rights for "WWE Raw" in the US for 10 years after 2024 and the rights to stream other WWE shows outside the US.
The Times reported in May that Netflix also made a three-year deal with the NFL to livestream a selection of football games .
Both deals could bring a new wave of sporting fans to the streamer.
The first major live sporting event for Netflix will be a heavyweight match between Tyson, a 58-year-old retired Boxing Hall of Famer who has lost only six matches in his 20-year career, and Jake Paul, a 27-year-old YouTuber who began his professional boxing career four years ago.
Here's how the fight ended up being planned.
Jake Paul's first amateur boxing match was shared on YouTube Before 2020, Jake Paul and his older brother Logan Paul were best known as content creators on the now defunct video app Vine and YouTube. The Paul brothers pivoted to boxing in 2018 at a time when male YouTubers were settling feuds with amateur boxing matches. In February 2018, KSI , a British YouTuber and rapper, challenged the Paul brothers to a fight after winning a match against another YouTuber, Joe Weller. Logan Paul eventually agreed to face KSI, while Jake Paul set up an undercard match, the precursor to the main event, with KSI's brother, Deji. KSI told Talksport in 2018 that over a million people paid to watch the fight, which ended with Logan Paul and KSI drawing, and Jake Paul winning. While Logan Paul and KSI went on to compete in more amateur fights against influencers and professional boxers including Tommy Fury and Floyd Mayweather Jr, Jake Paul went pro in 2020. Jake Paul has competed in 11 matches since then, losing only one, and in 2021 co-founded Most Valuable Promotions, a boxing promotion company, with his manager Nakisa Bidarian. Tyson took notice of the YouTubers, telling reporters at a press conference in 2020 that Jake Paul is a " God-gifted YouTube boxer .""Boxing owes these guys — YouTube boxers — some respect," Tyson said. "Boxing was pretty much a dying sport. The UFC was kicking our butt. Now we got these YouTubers, 20 million subscribers? Boxing is coming back thanks to these YouTube boxers."
Jake Paul made a deal with Netflix and then got Mike Tyson involved Tyson came out of retirement once before in 2020 to fight Roy Jones Jr. , which resulted in a draw. Jake Paul also participated in that event, winning against Nate Robinson in the undercard match. Two years later, Jake Paul told the YouTube sports channel Boxing Social that he wanted to fight Tyson and was confident he would win. "The old generation of boxing with the new generation of boxing all being mixed into one," Jake Paul said. "When we were on the same card, we sold almost two million pay-per-views. So imagine if we fought, three million pay-per-views, four million pay-per-views." Tyson told Jimmy Kimmel Live in June 2022 that the fight would have to happen that year, but nothing was arranged.ESPN reported on Tuesday that Jake Paul made a deal with Netflix in November 2023 to livestream one of his boxing matches. He then chose Tyson as his opponent.
"Many names were being floated around, but once you hear the name Mike Tyson, it's hard to unhear it," Gabe Spitzer, Netflix's vice president of sports, told ESPN. "Mike is a global superstar, someone who would potentially bring in casual boxing fans or even non-boxing fans, and we are always looking for big, global events that add value for our members."
On March 7, 2024, Netflix and Jake Paul announced that the fight with Tyson would take place at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, organized by Most Valuable Promotions.
"I'm here to make $40 million and knock out a legend," Jake Paul said at a press conference in August. "I don't give a fuck about anything else."
He said in a Netflix press brief in March: "My sights are set on becoming a world champion, and now I have a chance to prove myself against the greatest heavyweight champion ever, the baddest man on the planet and the most dangerous boxer of all time."
USA Today reported in September that Tyson said at a Cage Wars MMA event that he agreed to the match so he could "perform in front of the world."
"To me, that's all I ever knew how to do since I was 14," Tyson said.
The fight was delayed from July to November after Tyson had an ulcer flareup in May.
ESPN reported in November that the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation has sanctioned the fight, which means it will go ahead unless either party drops out.
Netflix's livestream will begin at 8 p.m. ET, but before Jake Paul and Tyson's fight, there will be two undercard matches and a co-main event fight between champion boxers Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano.
