Streaming giant Netflix Inc NFLX announced a live boxing event that could ramp up its live sports ambitions.
What Happened: Netflix, which ended the fourth quarter with 260.28 million global paid subscribers, is bringing live boxing to the streaming platform.
The company announced Thursday it will air a boxing match between Jake Paul and Mike Tyson on Saturday, July 20.
The event will take place at the 80,000-seat capacity AT&T Stadium in Texas, home of the NFL's Dallas Cowboys. Netflix will be the exclusive streamer of the boxing match in partnership with Most Valuable Promotions, a company co-founded by Paul.
Paul holds a 9-1 boxing record with his professional career beginning in 2020. Tyson holds a 50-6 career boxing record and is one of the most well-known boxers of all time, known as "the Baddest Man on the Planet" and "Iron Mike."
"It's crazy to think that in my second pro fight, I went viral for knocking out Nate Robinson on Mike Tyson's undercard. Now, less than four years later, I'm stepping up to face Tyson myself to see if I have what it takes to beat one of boxing's most notorious fighters and biggest icons," Paul said.
Paul called the fight against Tyson "the biggest fight in history."
"I could not be more excited to make this amazing fight available to all Netflix subscribers alongside the hardest hitter of all time."
Tyson is recognized as one of the best boxers of all time and was named the #1 hardest hitter in heavyweight history by ESPN. Tyson became the youngest heavyweight champion ever at the age of 20, and had a run of 37 consecutive victories during his professional boxing career included 33 wins by knockout.
“I'm very much looking forward to stepping into the ring with Jake Paul at the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. He's grown significantly as a boxer over the years, so it will be a lot of fun to see what the will and ambition of a ‘kid' can do with the experience and aptitude of a GOAT,” Tyson said.
Tyson's last professional boxing bout came in 2005. The boxer also took part in several exhibition matches, including a 2020 match against Roy Jones Jr., which was declared a draw after eight rounds.
It was not announced if the Paul vs. Tyson match will be a professional match or exhibition match. Netflix said the co-main event and undercards, along with ticket information, will be announced at a later date.
Related Link: Jake Paul’s Startup Hits $375M Valuation After Latest Fund Raise, Indiana Expansion
Why It's Important: Most Valuable Promotions co-founder Nakisa Bidarian served as an executive producer of the Tyson vs. Jones Jr. exhibition match, which is the eighth most purchased pay-per-view boxing event of all-time.
The promotion company said partnering with Netflix was a strategic decision for an event that will connect "six generations of sports fans" with a distribution platform available to hundreds of millions of fans.
"Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson is a once-in-a-lifetime dream matchup and we hope it will be the most-watched boxing event in modern boxing history," Bidarian said.
The Paul vs. Tyson live boxing event is the third live sports event for Netflix, following a live golf event between golfers and Formula 1 drivers and the recent "The Netflix Slam."
"The Netflix Slam" featured a tennis match between Rafael Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz, which aired on Netflix on March 3, 2024.
Netflix has aired several sports documentaries and also bid on the media rights to several sports leagues. The company has been less aggressive in bidding on sports rights in recent months, saying it wanted to focus on sports adjacent programming like docuseries and potentially one-off live events.
"We aren't anti-sports, we're pro-profit," Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos said in January 2023 when asked about sports rights.
NFLX Price Action: Netflix shares are up 1% to $603.98 on Thursday, versus a 52-week trading range of $285.33 to $624.42. Shares of the streaming giant are up 23% year-to-date in 2024 and up over 90% in the last year.
Read Next: EXCLUSIVE – Mike Tyson: ‘2Pac Got Me Into Smoking Weed Again’
Photo: Netflix
© 2024 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
Comments
Trade confidently with insights and alerts from analyst ratings, free reports and breaking news that affects the stocks you care about.
