The winners for the night Tyson, Paul, Netflix……. Losers for the night, us
November 15th will stick with people for a long time. Paul has gotten one of the biggest paydays in recent history for boxing, all because he decided to fight a boxer that has been past his prime for a few years now. This fight was supposed to happen months ago, but due to a stomach issue with Tyson his fight was delayed until November. One thing I can say Netflix did put on a spectacle and one way or another with either people buffering the live stream all the time or just a display that was put on for the boxing match. Tyson walks away with a $20 million payday which just equates short of 1.6 million per round. In recent years, there has been a trend to move towards streaming only for pay-per-view fights and this has caused a problem for a lot of people. Hence, Netflix had a hard time keeping up with the demand of last night’s performance.
More peek, a lot less boo
Let me start off by saying age is the master of all of us. Mike Tyson is showing his age and his knees are aging faster than his upper body. The first two rounds of the fight we thought we were going to see the iconic Mike Tyson’s peek-a-boo style get into action. But that was not the case. Mike Tyson shows flashes of brilliance and that he still had it while still being able to move around the ring pretty well for his age. With Paul being about half his age, Paul should have been all over him from the minute the fight started not giving Tyson a chance to get his bearings. History was what prevented Paul from rushing up on Mike because that peekaboo style is still dangerous if employed correctly. Mike’s upper body looked amazing. Legs looked amazing but Mike Tyson was out there with a knee sleeve which just shows that time is the master of us all. By round 5, Mike’s knees were not there anymore and he was doing everything he could just to keep up with Paul around the ring. April the way Mike was fighting with 14 oz gloves and also this was not a real sanction fight to where results really matter. This was more of an exhibition just for the fans. It’s a dream boxing match for younger people for older people. This was a lesson, our heroes are now legends and should stay in that category. Tyson’s hands still look ferocious it’s just that his knees and legs were not behind him and by the end of the fight Mike Tyson looked like he just wanted to go home and relax. If Mike was fighting somebody his age this fight probably would have went entirely different with Mike landing a knockout, but with Paul it was more of an exhibition and a show that he still had it and I also believe that Mike could have still knocked out Paul if he chose to
Paul needs to fight active boxers
Let’s just start by saying Paul is one of the greatest used car salesman on the planet. He sold us a dream. Most of us bought it for $7.99 because we watched it on Netflix, but the rest of the people who were in attendance live and in person were really the ones that were at a loss. He came into the fight as a young bull fighting the old bull and didn’t show any fangs or horns for that matter. He landed more punches throughout the fight, but Tyson did a good job of actually pressuring him and by the end of the fight Paul looked wiped. Eight 2-minute rounds really took a toll on them and if Paul wants to move forward and his progress as a boxer, he needs to fight more boxers that are actually in the WBC and other sanction organizations. Dream matches can only last for so long and it shows he’s still in the vein of being a YouTuber and going for hype and actual substance is not there. This event should have been more for charity and for people to watch and enjoy instead of actually making it seem like this was going to be a legit fight where someone was gonna get dropped. Paul could be a real contender in the letter organizations if he put the work in. He could draw humongous draws if he fought and beat mid card boxers. Nobody could stop him if he was to challenge a title holder…….. That’s only if he can recover from the stigma of fighting boxers that are past their prime.
Netflix indeed did chill
As The Rock would say “The millions…….. and MILLIONS……. of people across the world” were watching the N buffer more than they watched the fight. One could say this was foreshadowed by the “Mr. McMahon” documentary’s when he tried to broadcast in three different states at the same time. By the time most of the people were able to watch it was 6th round when Tyson was gassed. Paul was gassed……. It was a traditional heavyweight fight……..albeit pickleball style. Netflix did something different and failed. Their execution of the final product was not reflective of the quality of the production. The graphics and direction was nice. It followed and the build up gave you that feeling of watching your first pay per view only this cost less than $4 dollars to watch. Hopefully the next Netflix live event is delivered seamlessly.
