Dana White recently joked that a lot of people watch Jake Paul's games, but no one pays for the privilege. Given how widely available illegal streaming is, this is a serious problem for “problem children” and one that Paul and his team may have solved for his next fight with Mike Tyson. be.
The Paul vs. Tyson boxing match is scheduled for July 20th at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. Even those who can't attend in person can watch the match for free if they have a Netflix account, increasing the potential audience to more than 260 million subscribers.
“I think the fact that it's on Netflix is going to really revolutionize the boxing world,” Paul said on his YouTube channel. “I think streaming could potentially be a very bright future for this sport… No more PPV? We'll probably continue to do pay-per-view. I don't know, watch it. Let's see. Maybe this is what the fans will pay attention to.”
Paul was able to pull off this massive streaming deal with the help of Nakisa Bidalian, co-founder of Most Valuable Promotions and previously served as the UFC's chief strategy officer and chief financial officer. did it.
“We are meeting with the next person.” [Netflix] “For probably over a year, we've been instilling in them the idea that we're going to fight together,” Paul said. “And they were immediately like, 'Yeah, let's make it happen!'” So, me and Nakisa, the most valuable promotion, were just trying to find the right match, the right time frame, the right event. It is. I knew I wanted Target this summer, so I just started making calls. ”
“We called Tommy Fury and he was one of the candidates too, but he said no. He wanted more money…so we called different people. I started visiting. [we] I talked to Mike. I thought, “Oh, I should ask Mike.” I think it was probably four or five months ago. ”
Netflix recently signed a $5 billion deal to broadcast WWE events in 2025, and Tyson vs. Paul will be the first major live sporting event to be broadcast on the platform. Paul expects more big matches like this to happen on major streaming networks.
“I think it sets a precedent,” he said. “The fight has to mean something. Anything that makes economic sense for a streaming platform has to be highly attractive, because streaming platforms need to increase the number of new subscribers and the monthly and daily active Because you have to quantify how it's impacting your users. But yeah, it's pretty crazy. The craziest thing is, we've hand-picked it, we've run it, and we've made it all happen. Probably the thing I'm actually most proud of is being on the promotional side and winning MVP as well.”
“I think this is going to be a big, big, big success. Everyone's going to want to fight each other and they're going to run to Netflix and Amazon Prime. All of this. [streamers], Peacock, probably everyone will try to participate in this in some form or fashion. ”
