The questions that dominated the fight between the legendary retired boxer Mike Tyson and the plump and thirty years younger influencer Jake Paul turned into answers today. They boxed together for eight rounds in the gigantic hall of the Dallas Cowboys in Arlington, Texas. But it did not bring the desired resolution. Most people watching the fight on Netflix wanted Tyson to knock Paul out quickly, but that didn’t happen. The influencer managed to run and Tyson was unable to hit him. Both survived eight rounds and the referees finally awarded the fight to Paul. He declared Tyson the best boxer of all time. The 58-year-old boxer said that it was probably not his last fight.
Jake Paul fulfilled the role of the jester right from the start. He was brought to the ring by a car painted with green flames, accompanied by a dove, which he presented to Mike Tyson, but he refused it. It might have reminded the people of Našin of the scenes of the late Ivan Jonák. Only instead of busty beauties, his brother Logan was driving with him in the car. He chose In the Air Tonight by Phil Collins as the entrance music. Mike Tyson arrived quietly and humbly, but he had an even louder welcome. While it was tepid for Paul, Tyson’s nearly blew the roof off and the ovations continued and roared whenever he appeared on screen. But then, after months of talk, it finally got down to business.
The first round started very wildly. Tyson missed a back hook by millimeters. As expected, Paul ran and didn’t show much. In the second round Paul was saved from a blow by a gong. In the third, they traded blows, and Jake Paul finally tried to end it. It was the third round that was supposed to be decisive for Tyson, as his coach Rafael Cordeiro told me after the press conference. It was clear to the coaching staff that as the length of the match increased, the younger opponent would have the upper hand. And that really happened from the fourth round onwards. Tyson withered, Paul revived. He even allowed himself to hang his hands down, similar to what Jiří Procházka does. But it didn’t bring many hits to either of them.
In the seventh round, Tyson again tried to finish Paul, but missed. In the break before the final battle, you could see that he was really full of glasses. In the eighth round, neither showed anything. Paul began bowing to the boxing legend in the last five seconds, then they fell into each other’s arms for long seconds. Duel Jake Paul vs. Although the judges finally decided against Mike Tyson in favor of an influencer thirty years younger, the winners of this duel were the pair of women who boxed before them, because it was several levels of better performance there. The match was thus a disappointment for many people at the venue. After so much teasing and stretching, the desired climax did not come. Both left the ring separately. Tyson proved that he can train for 16 intense minutes of boxing even at the age of 60, Paul proved that he can survive it. In his closing speech, he declared Tyson the best boxer of all time and called all working Americans heroes. Mike Tyson revealed that he was biting his glove throughout the fight because he has a strong chewing reflex and that this may not be the last time we see him in the ring. He did not reveal who he would like to fight next. The winners of the evening were the pair from the previous match, who performed a completely different performance.
When the women’s main event came up before Paul and Tyson, the entrances couldn’t have been more different. While Amanda Serrano stepped out to rap hard in a bulletproof vest, Katie Taylor accompanied a calm pop to the ring wearing a robe with glittering rhinestones. This was widely talked about as the best and biggest possible promotion of women’s sports in the world. And the rematch between these two fighters lived up to that. Also at that time, the Dallas Cowboys stadium was finally completely filled. The ladies flew at each other in the first minute. Serrano was more aggressive and dominated the first few rounds, but Taylor managed to rip her eyebrows in the fourth round, really deep. But both wanted to hit a proper KO. In the seventh round, both turned on beast mode, practically stopped covering each other and showered each other with a rain of blows, the hall cheered. But the KO still didn’t come and the eyebrows flowed more and more. And the details of the wound on a screen several meters wide did not look very attractive. It was like watching surgery in Imax. And Katie Taylor’s aggressiveness paid off as she turned the unfavorable result around to win on points. Total box, beautiful.
The boxing gala wasn’t just about the two main stars and their female co-fighters. A total of three matches were presented in the preliminary round, and in all cases only the referees decided. Then it was time for the main card. The first fight of the Indian Goyat with the Brazilian Nunes did not bring anything important and it was quite a boring spectacle. The Indian won convincingly on points. While it wasn’t much fun, the move paid off for Netflix just because of the potential of a billion new subscribers from India. The following fight Barrios vs. Ramos was a completely different coffee. Although the former represented his native Texas and the latter represented Arizona, both have Mexican roots. Barrios also entered the ring accompanied by drummers in traditional clothing. They put on a great show where they both showed that they can deliver and take hard blows. Ramos went down in the second round, Barrios in the sixth. Then it looked like each of them could KO the other, but failed. After an hour and twelve full rounds, both took away a well-deserved draw.
Netflix is definitely not done with live streaming. As its Vice President of Documentary Production Brandon Rigg confirmed to Reflex, this is just the beginning. The whole idea for the match was born a year and a half ago, when Netflix published a documentary series about the influencer Jake Paul. “We were surprised by how much positive response it got. Paul came to us and wanted to do a live stream match with us. When he was choosing his opponent, it still wasn’t the same. We needed a name known outside the boxing community. And he mentioned out of nowhere that he would like to fight Tyson. And that’s where it all fell into place for us,” says Rigg. But the boxing legend didn’t give a nod to the match right away and let everyone freak out. “He wanted to make sure that he had enough time to prepare properly, that he didn’t underestimate anything, that his coaching staff would go for it and that he had the unanimous support of his family. After 14 days he called us to say he was taking it and we cheered,” added Rigg.
Hundreds of people worked on the live broadcast of the boxing gala. It was prepared for almost a year and a half so that tens to hundreds of millions of viewers around the world could watch it at once. After him, Netflix wants to rush into other projects, and Rigg confirmed that if it makes sense for all parties, they would also like to start working together on local projects, even within the framework of combat sports. It is not excluded that one day we will also watch matches of Czech, Polish, German or British fighters on Netflix. But that is still a long way off. But it would like to work on on-site activities, which was handled by the organizing agency MVP, which is co-owned by Jake Paul. Even at such a huge event, one realizes how far the Czechs are in organizing similar events. Whether it’s Livebros and Go4Gold or the entire team that organizes Oktagon tournaments. Thanks to them, the fun on the spot is several levels higher and the fans experience it as well. Here, Netflix broadcasted it flawlessly and in good quality, there was a lack of greater activation on the spot. Perhaps this is food for thought for the global streaming giant as to who to try it with next.
