The boxing and streaming world received a collective shock recently, when it was announced that Jake Paul and Mike Tyson would fight each other in the ring, and the fight would be broadcasted on streaming giant Netflix.
Never mind the age difference between the two, or the championships, and career accolades, Netflix getting the fight might just be the biggest story of the night on July 20 this summer. While the streaming platform has been at the top in terms of subscriptions and audience due to their movies and original series, they have only done live sports broadcasting a handful of times.
With F1 and tennis experience to their credit, Netflix is seemingly ready to put themselves up against other live sport streaming services, especially with the combat sports world needing more.
Earlier this year it was announced that WWE’s Monday Night Raw will be headed to Netflix in 2025, and with both the WWE and UFC being under TKO ownership, the success of Tyson vs Paul could lead to one big question: Could the UFC follow WWE to Netflix?
Currently, the UFC has a deal with ESPN+ that is set to expire in 2025 and while the ESPN deal has been lucrative for the promotion, there could be competition from Netflix to host the MMA giant.
It all starts with Mike Tyson and Jake Paul. Netflix will be in charge of production for the event, alongside Paul’s MVP promotion, but it’ll be interesting to see how several factors come into play for this event. The pacing of the event will be key, keeping fans involved and interested and not dragging out the event will be a big check mark checked off.
Other factors that will come into play is what commentary team they plan to have for the event, how they will promote it, and can the broadcast go through its entirety without any hiccups or issues. For their very first live combat sports event Netflix will have plenty obstacles stacked up for them to overcome, but if they can, the payoff could be massive, whether it be for their introduction to combat sports or to make a play with another sports league.
There are other streaming platforms like DAZN, ESPN+, Fubo, Paramount+, and more but the first two are the biggest players in the competition. The obvious difference is DAZN and ESPN+ are known for their live sports programming, although they offer other original series and movies on the platform, it would be a whole new ballgame with Netflix.
Although they have a very lucrative and successful business deal with ESPN, the UFC could look at their partners in the WWE, and have all eyes on this boxing mega-event, and there could be a massive swing in the leader of live sports streaming if things go well.
