Did Netflix Flunk Its Audition With Tyson vs Paul?

The potential future streaming home of the UFC couldn't handle the demand.

Netflix posted some pretty amazing numbers with the Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson freakshow boxing match on Friday.

Streaming giant Netflix said Saturday that 60 million households tuned in live to watch YouTuber-turned-prizefighter Paul, 27, cruise to a unanimous decision over Tyson, the 58-year-old former heavyweight champion, at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. The fight peaked at 65 million concurrent streams.

In addition, Netflix said 50 million households globally watched the co-main event, which saw Katie Taylor retain her undisputed women's lightweight championship with a controversial unanimous decision over Amanda Serrano. That number, according to Netflix, likely would make the fight the most-watched professional women's sporting event in United States history.

If you’re reading this MMA Draw newsletter, I shouldn’t need to tell you this was a ridiculous match that should never have been booked at all. It certainly should not have been the most-viewed fight of the year.

And of course, there are also those skeptical about the numbers Netflix is claiming, such as long-time Sports Business Journal editor Austin Karp:

“Sorry but I just can’t really trust internal-only Netflix numbers for Tyson-Paul (plus the numbers reported are global). I’m sure true numbers would’ve been good, but we may likely never know. Reported numbers aren’t 3rd-party verified and there’s every incentive for exaggeration.”

But we don’t have the expertise and access to parse the real numbers nor time to bemoan the ridiculously stupid state of fight fandom in 2024. Suckers have been being born every minute as long as we’ve all been alive so it shouldn’t be a surprise that dumbass normies got sucked into the hype around this bout.

The fight had cross-generational appeal. Gen Xers, who once owned Mike Tyson’s Punchout for their Nintendo systems, hoped to see just a flash of the fearsome Iron Mike they remembered from back in the day.

Millennials remembered Tyson biting Evander Holyfield’s ear and threatening to eat Lenox Lewis’ children were hoping to recapture that “oh my God anything could happen with this man in the ring” feeling.

And Gen Z, well they just wanted to see someone finally punch the smirk off Jake Paul’s face.

Once upon a time, the UFC provided a similar mix of emotions, especially the “what the fuck is gonna happen?” vibe.

The more worrisome thing is that Netflix did an absolute shit job of streaming the fight card.

As my colleague Zach Arnold noted, “It was like we went back to 1997 with 56K modems and it drove modern society mad while Gen Xers laughed with glee.”

Given the rapidly increasing consolidation of streaming media services, Netflix is one of TKO’s best options for finding a new streaming partner for the UFC.

Netflix is the big winner of the streaming wars. Subscriptions are up and Wall Street has been loving the stock, which is up 76% over the last year.

But the market demands endless growth, and live events are a critical area for the streaming behemoth—one it has yet to conquer. Unfortunately, Friday’s poor performance doesn’t bode well for the company:

The #NetflixCrash hashtag was trending on X, and Downdetector said it received over 1 million reports of Netflix issues in 50 countries, including 530,000 reports in the United States, with the issues peaking at around 11pm Eastern. 

“This is the biggest event,” Paul declared after the match. “Over 120 million people on Netflix. We crashed the site.”

Netflix has stumbled with live programming before — last year, the broadcast of the Season 4 reunion of “Love is Blind” was delayed by more than an hour. Since then, the streamer has been ramping up its live lineup with exhibition golf and tennis matches, live talk shows, and awards ceremonies, without major issues.

What does this mean for the UFC’s next media deal?

And this doesn’t bode well for TKO, whose media streaming deal with Disney’s ESPN+ is up at the end of 2025. We’ll look at all the possibilities in the full story.