A remarkable 60 million households tuned in to watch Jake Paul vs Mike Tyson on Friday night.
Netflix called their first foray into live sports a “record-breaking night”.
The stream wasn’t without issues, with several fans complaining about glitches and buffering throughout the night.
However, the event certainly drew plenty of eyes and was offered up free of charge to existing Netflix subscribers.
50 million viewers tuned in to watch the co-feature attraction between Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano, which stole the show.
Taylor retained her undisputed super lightweight titles in a barn-burning bout.
The Irishwoman picked up a unanimous decision boxing off the back foot with all three judges’ scorecards reading 95-94, 95-94 and 95-94 in her favour.
But many fans believe Serrano had done enough to get her hand raised and the CompuBox stats backed up their point.
Serrano found a home for 327 punches to Taylor’s 217 to set a record for the most punches landed by a female fighter.
Yet it wasn’t to be her night. While Serrano and Taylor lived up to their amazing inaugural encounter, Paul vs Tyson fell flat on its face.
Both men appeared hesitant to let their hands go in a very low-output fight that saw Paul win a wide unanimous decision over his 58-year-old foe.
Over the course of eight two-minute rounds, Paul landed 78 blows while Tyson scored with just 18 of his 97 total punches.
Taylor vs Serrano was watched by 50 million households[/caption]
There was always a feeling that this could happen and yet the stream peaked at 65 million households.
Media consultant Joe Hand Promotions distributed the event to over 6000 bars and restaurants in the United States, setting the record for commercial distribution of a combat sports event in the company’s 50+ year history.
#PaulTyson was the No. 1 trending topic worldwide on X on Friday with #Serrano at No. 2 in the US, Brazil, Spain, and Canada.
The event shattered a couple of records as well, achieving the biggest boxing gate outside of Las Vegas in US history.
Paul vs Tyson’s gate grossed over $18m, double the previous Texas gate record for combat sports, topping Canelo Alvarez‘s record of $9m.
Over 72,300 punters attended the event, which included some of the biggest stars in sports and entertainment.
Among the long list of star-studded names were Evander Holyfield, Shaquille O’Neal, Bryson DeChambeau, Jerry Jones, and Charlize Theron.
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There are more than 150 boxing and MMA fights a year on DAZN, and you can get access for less if you sign up now:
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- Complete your purchase before 29 November to take advantage of the sale.
DAZN currently has the exclusive rights to Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom and will have Queensberry’s star-studded stable from April 2025, which includes heavyweight champions Daniel Dubois, Zhilei Zhang, Fabio Wardley and Moses Itauma.
