Mike Tyson battles Jake Paul in Match on Netflix
At the age of 58, Mike Tyson returns to the boxing ring.
Mr Tyson, the former world heavyweight champion whose career has been marred by troubles in and out of the ring, will fight social media influencer turned boxer Jake Paul on July 20 in a match streamed live on Netflix, the company announced on Thursday.
The fight, at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, will be the first for Mr. Tyson since 2020, when he and Roy Jones Jr., also a former world boxing champion, fought to a draw in an exhibition match.
The event will mark another step in Netflix’s aggressive push to introduce live “sports-related programming,” which has the potential to attract large audiences without the kind of investment that streaming games from professional sports leagues requires. The company recently signed a 10-year, multibillion-dollar deal for the exclusive rights to stream World Wrestling Entertainment’s weekly wrestling show, “Raw.”
The boxing spectacle made for streaming was created through a collaboration between Netflix and Mr. Paul’s Most Valuable Promotions, the company he co-founded with Nakisa Bidarian in 2021 to disrupt combat sports. He and Mr. Tyson will be paid about the same for the fight, but the parties will not disclose the amount.
Mr Paul, 27, took up boxing in 2018 and has seen his star rise en route to a 9-1 record. His last fight was Saturday night when he stopped Ryan Bourland in the first round.
“It’s crazy to think that in my second pro fight I went viral for knocking out Nate Robinson on Mike Tyson’s undercard,” Mr. Paul said in a statement. “Now, less than four years later, I’m going to take on Tyson to see if I have what it takes to beat one of boxing’s most infamous and biggest icons.”
Mr. Tyson, who turns 58 in June, was a phenomenon from the start of his professional career in 1985. He became champion at the age of 20 and won his first 37 professional bouts, almost all by knockout. His first professional loss, to James (Buster) Douglas, remains one of the most shocking upsets in sports history.
He later faced legal trouble and served three years in prison for rape. In the ring, his reputation was marred by erratic behavior, such as biting one of Evander Holyfield’s ears during a 1997 fight.
Lately, Mr. Tyson, who has spoken about a past cocaine addiction, has been spending more time on his fledgling marijuana business than on his boxing career. He sells a variety of products, including gummies shaped like Mr. Holyfield’s ear.
Netflix’s first foray into a live sports-related event was a practice golf match in November, pitting athletes from the “Formula 1: Drive to Survive” series against golfers from the “Full Swing” series. Last weekend, a practice tennis match between Rafael Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz was streamed.
The company is also familiar with Mr. Paul. Last year, an episode of the documentary series ‘Untold’ focused on his transformation from YouTube celebrity to professional boxer. The episode ‘Untold: Jake Paul the Problem Child’ spent a week in the top 10 of Netflix in 20 countries, including Great Britain.
In 2021, Mr. Paul’s older brother Logan fought former boxing champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. in a pay-per-view fight that Showtime sold for $49.99. The match lasted eight rounds and no winner was declared.