At first blush, Netflix being sued over its broadcast of the Jake Paul vs Mike Tyson boxing match, might strike you as having something to do with some grand scheme like match-fixing, but that’s not the case. No, it’s much simpler.
On Nov. 15, 2024, boxing legend Mike Tyson stepped into the ring as a 58-year-old man to take on the young hungry up-and-comer Jake Paul. Together the two gave us one of the biggest spectacles that the sport has ever seen, but also one of the most forgettable fights in history.
Well for some viewers who wanted to see this fight, it wasn’t possible as Netflix’s broadcast was plagued with buffering issues. These were so bad in some places that the streaming platform is now being sued over it.
A class-action lawsuit was filed in Florida on Monday, Nov. 18, 2024, and was first brought to light by TMZ. The lawsuit claims that its plaintiff and money other boxing fans were faced with “legendary problems, including: no access, streaming glitches, and buffering issues” when trying to tune into the fight last Friday. The goal of this lawsuit is to obtain unspecified damages.
As you might expect, Netflix hasn’t yet acknowledged the lawsuit, but it did take accountability for the streaming problems that users faced in a statement shared to social media following the event. In the statement, the platform spokesperson wrote that while they are looking to make improvements for its next major livestream events, Paul vs Tyson was still a huge success.
If you were to jump on social media during the livestream, you would have instantly seen posts from people who were suffering streaming issues during the event. That or you would have seen Mike Tyson’s bare posterior, which also went viral over the weekend.
Despite its problems both in the technical and ethical departments, Paul vs Tyson was a gigantic event that is being touted as the most-streamed sporting event in history; an average of 108 million live viewers watched Jake Paul and Mike Tyson throw down in what can only be described as a glorified sparring match.
While Tyson came out strong, even showing glimpses of his vintage days, it was immediately clear that this was a diminished version of the former heavyweight world champion — and it seemed Paul recognized that, too. As the fight went long, it appeared that Paul was holding back from doing any real damage to the legend, and ultimately the fight went to an entirely one-sided decision.
Fortunately, before this lackluster bout were several incredible fights from a crop of current world champion-level boxers, so the event still had some to offer to boxing diehards, even if its main event couldn’t live up to the hype.
It remains to be seen what will come of this class-action lawsuit. Hopefully, regardless of its outcome, Netflix will be able to remedy the streaming problems it faced during this event and have everything in order for the NFL Christmas Gameday which is set to stream on the platform on Dec. 25.
