We got the chance to see what a 58-year-old Mike Tyson looks like in the boxing ring on Friday, live on Netflix.
It was depressingly terrible, and now NFL fans and bosses should be dreading watching this year’s Christmas Day games on the streaming platform. This was Netflix’s biggest live sporting event to date – its first real chance to prove it can handle staging mega-events. And it was a shambles.
Tyson, the former undisputed heavyweight champion, took on Jake Paul, a 27-year-old social media star, inside a packed AT&T Stadium in Texas. Many fans rather optimistically thought Tyson could beat the 10-1 Paul, who’s still never faced a credible opponent during his lucrative fighting career (and yes, Tommy Fury of Love Island fame is not credible).
There was a delusional belief that Tyson could magically locate the unprecedented power and speed that made him the most brutal boxer on the planet 38 years ago. That’s when he became the youngest heavyweight champion in the world by beating Trevor Berbick as a 20-year-old.
Yet Tyson was never going to knock Paul out. He looked like a worried ageing man as he walked out to the ring, seemingly carrying an injury in his strapped-up right knee. Like those watching on anxiously, he struggled throughout the fight, landing just 18 punches and shuffling rather than moving his feet. He had no speed nor energy.
Paul seemed scared to throw a punch by the end of the fight, knowing Tyson was in danger of getting hurt. The younger fighter even admitted he took his foot off the gas. “I wanted to give the fans a show, but I didn’t want to hurt someone that didn’t need to be hurt,” he told reporters. Both boxers should be ashamed for taking part in a farcical fight that has, incredibly, gone down as professional.
Tyson was clearly unable to perform at professional level on Friday (
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Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images for Netflix © 2024)
Yet the bosses at Netflix are the real villains in this sad story for agreeing to stage such an event, not to mention the terrible production quality. The picture constantly went blurry during Paul-Tyson and the expectedly excellent fight between Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano (which the latter should’ve won).
Often it would completely freeze, forcing me to jump in and out of the stream to get it going. I felt like I was playing ‘Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2’ on the Xbox 360 again.
And it wasn’t just me in New York who encountered these problems. Thousands of people on social media – as well as friends in the United Kingdom – also struggled to get the stream working properly.
Paul should be ashamed of himself for fighting a 58-year-old (
Image:
TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP)
Kate Scott, one of the most respected hosts in live sports, was joined by underwhelming guests and uninspiring announcers. Netflix’s lack of experience in staging such an event was painfully clear. This fight should’ve never been allowed to take place, not at professional level at least, shown on a platform that couldn’t handle it.
It’s obvious why Netflix wants to break into the live sports market, with Amazon broadcasting ‘Thursday Night Football’ (and doing a good job at it, too). But the streaming giant – one that became a leading player in the market thanks to TV shows like ‘Stranger Things’ and ‘Squid Game’ – must improve significantly if it wants to be successful in sports.
Netflix shouldn’t be associating itself with events like Paul-Tyson, and it needs to be providing first-class production when it does show live sports. The platform’s next challenge will be on Christmas Day, when it’ll show two games as part of a new three-year deal with the NFL. The Kansas City Chiefs will face the Pittsburgh Steelers, while the Baltimore Ravens will take on the Houston Texans.
Netflix simply can’t afford to fumble its coverage of these games. These are two massive events, taking place with the playoffs on the horizon and millions of fans tuning in. For all the hype around Paul-Tyson, football remains the most watched and adored sport in the United States. Fans will be furious if they miss a Hail Mary from Patrick Mahomes, for example, because of buffering.
Netflix bosses still have time to learn from Friday’s madness. If they don’t, their company’s reputation will tank quicker than a struggling franchise eyeing up a top draft pick.
