How Women’s Boxing Won on Netflix
Forget Jake Paul and Mike Tyson. The winner of their November 15 spectacle was women’s boxing.
No one should have expected a quality boxing match between Jake Paul and Mike Tyson. Mike Tyson’s glory years were decades behind him. Jake Paul was hardly a championship-caliber prize fighter. No, the real action occurred with the undercard match-up between Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano for the world light-welterweight championship.
The two had previously squared off in 2022, when Taylor retained her lightweight championship title in a narrow split-decision victory. Their 2022 match marked the first time two women headlined a boxing event at Madison Square Garden.
Their intense 2024 rematch had everything: furious exchanges, fast pacing, a contrast of styles (Serrano’s aggressive style and Taylor’s effective counter-punching), and controversy — the crowd at AT&T Stadium loudly booed the judges’ decision to award the victory to Taylor, as many believed that Amanda Serrano should have won. Indeed, controversy is part of sports.
There was nothing controversial about the Jake Paul/Mike Tyson event; it was universally panned as a dud. The build-up for the event, with its comic-book style promotion akin to professional wrestling, was more interesting than the fight itself. The fact that 60 million households watched the show (per Netflix) was a triumph of promotion.
Unfortunately, Netflix’s brand took a major hit due to the livestream being marred by technical issues that triggered a firestorm of anger on social media. Netflix struggled to handle the surge in viewership, leading to buffering, pixelation, and complete livestream crashes. Netflix is now facing withering criticism ahead of its two NFL Christmas Day games (although neither is expected to cause the surge in viewership that the Jake Paul/Mike Tyson event did).
The Katie Taylor/Amanda Serrano match-up was the most-watched women’s fight ever due to its placement on a high-profile card on Netflix. Promoters and fans are now calling for them to fight for a third time, which will most certainly happen. Will Netflix seize the opportunity to capitalize on a likely rematch between Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano in 2025?
