At age 58, Mike Tyson can be getting again within the boxing ring.
Mr. Tyson, the previous world heavyweight champion, whose profession was marred by points out and in of the ring, will tackle the social media influencer turned boxer Jake Paul on July 20 in a match that can be streamed dwell on Netflix, the corporate introduced on Thursday.
The bout, at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, would be the first battle for Mr. Tyson since 2020, when he and Roy Jones Jr., additionally a former world boxing champion, fought to a attract an exhibition match.
The occasion can be one other step in Netflix’s aggressive push into dwell “sports-adjacent programming,” which has the potential to attract massive audiences with out the type of funding that streaming video games from skilled sports activities leagues requires. The corporate just lately reached a multibillion-dollar, 10-year deal for the unique rights to stream World Wrestling Leisure’s flagship weekly wrestling present, “Uncooked.”
The made-for-streaming boxing spectacle was led to by a partnership between Netflix and Mr. Paul’s Most Precious Promotions, the corporate he established in 2021 with Nakisa Bidarian to disrupt fight sports activities. He and Mr. Tyson can be paid about the identical for the battle, however the events wouldn’t reveal the quantity.
Mr. Paul, 27, started boxing in 2018 and has seen his star rise on his strategy to a 9-1 report. His final battle was on Saturday night time, when he stopped Ryan Bourland within the first spherical.
“It’s loopy to assume that in my second professional battle, I went viral for knocking out Nate Robinson on Mike Tyson’s undercard,” Mr. Paul stated in an announcement. “Now, lower than 4 years later, I’m stepping as much as face Tyson myself to see if I’ve what it takes to beat considered one of boxing’s most infamous fighters and largest icons.”
Mr. Tyson, who turns 58 in June, was a phenomenon proper from the beginning of his skilled profession in 1985. He grew to become a champion by the age of 20 and gained his first 37 skilled matches, practically all of them by knockout. His first skilled loss, to James (Buster) Douglas, stays probably the most stunning upsets in sports activities historical past.
He later confronted authorized troubles, serving three years in jail for rape. Within the ring, his status was marred by erratic habits, like biting considered one of Evander Holyfield’s ears throughout a 1997 bout.
Currently, Mr. Tyson, whose has spoken of a previous habit to cocaine, has been spending extra time on his fledgling marijuana enterprise than on his boxing profession. He sells a wide range of merchandise, together with gummies formed to appear like Mr. Holyfield’s ear.
Netflix’s first foray right into a dwell sports-related occasion was an exhibition golf match in November that pitted athletes from its “System 1: Drive to Survive” sequence towards golfers featured on its sequence “Full Swing.” Final weekend, it streamed an exhibition tennis match between Rafael Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz.
The corporate can be conversant in Mr. Paul. Final yr, an episode of its “Untold” documentary sequence centered on his transformation from YouTube movie star to skilled boxer. The episode, “Untold: Jake Paul the Drawback Baby,” spent one week in Netflix’s prime 10 in 20 international locations, together with Britain.
In 2021, Mr. Paul’s older brother, Logan, fought the previous boxing champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. in a pay-per-view bout that Showtime bought for $49.99. The match went eight rounds, and no winner was declared.
