Jake Paul claimed that over 120 million people watched his fight with Mike Tyson on Friday – but the Netflix statistics suggest a much smaller figure tuned in to watch
Jake Paul’s boast that over 120 million people watched his fight with Mike Tyson on Friday wasn’t quite accurate.
On Saturday, Netflix dropped the figures for the bout with Tyson, with 60 million households tuning in. The event hit a peak of 65 million live streams. Netflix will release the total viewership early this week.
Speaking to the press after his points victory over the 58-year-old Tyson on Friday, the YouTuber-turned-boxer claimed he is now entitled to square off against the industry’s top dogs, given the audience he roped in for his tangle with the ex-world champion.
“Anyone I want,” Paul said when asked by reporters who he should face next. “This is the biggest event, over 120 million people on Netflix. We crashed the site. The biggest US boxing game, $20million, US history. Everyone is next on the list.”
Although Paul’s number was off compared to Netflix’s actual data, the fight had clout – gate receipts surpassed the $18m mark, beating both boxing and MMA records to the punch, leaving even Canelo Alvarez’s $9m take sweating in second place.
Netflix users were left frustrated during outages as millions tried to tune in for the epic boxing match – even former NFL ace Antonio Brown was seen live-streaming the fight from his phone at AT&T Stadium.
At one point, a whopping 7.6 million viewers jumped on Brown’s impromptu broadcast. Despite the bout not rolling out as expected, with Tyson fading early, Paul was insistent that his victory over one of the boxing legends has catapulted him into stardom.
After clinching the win, Paul made a case for himself, demanding to be lined up against high-profile figures in both boxing and MMA, citing his popularity as evidence of his right to top-tier matchups. The 27-year-old influencer made his views clear post-fight, telling journalists he believes he’s earned his stripes in the fighting world.
“Yeah, I mean I think so, but people just love to hate me. I’m easy to hate and I intentionally say things to make people hate me,” Paul told reporters after the fight. “I play the heel, I feed into that, and that’s just what I like to do and that’s what entertainment is. And at the end of the day, I started as a 17-year-old in Los Angeles in the entertainment business.
“But I’ve been in this sport for four and a half years and have been so active doing every event, taking any fight possible. So if people want to see more or this challenge or fight this person, whatever it is, my response to them is just give him a couple more months.
“I’m going to accomplish more things in just a matter of months and I plan on doing everything in this sport that there is to be done.”
On a different note, the rematch between Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano caught the attention of nearly 50 million households, setting a potential record as the most-watched professional women’s sporting event in US history.
