Netflix streaming issues during Tyson-Paul event prompt frustration and jokes

There was plenty of criticism surrounding Friday’s highly hyped Mike Tyson vs. Jake Paul boxing event streaming on Netflix, but it had nothing to do with the boxers in the ring.

Issues with video streaming quality, pixelation, stuttering and even outright crashes lit up social media well before the main event as undercard fighters slugged it out.

The tracking website downdetector.com showed a wave of reports of problems with Netflix’s website that began just before 10 p.m. 21 A.M. They climbed to more than 88,700 reports around 10:30 p.m

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The fight between boxing legend Tyson and YouTuber-turned-boxer Paul had been estimated to begin around 23, but undercard fighters still competed.

Users on X shared gifs of highly pixelated videos or images of wires and comments suggesting the streaming company’s IT department must be having a rough night.

Some even dusted off old “connecting” screen from the America Online days of the Internet to make a joke about the issues.

The hashtags #NetflixFight, #buffering and #netflixcrash trended on the social media platform.

Netflix had no immediate comment, a spokesperson said in response to an emailed inquiry.

Tyson, now 58, is the former heavyweight champion and one of boxing’s biggest names. Paul, 27, rose to fame as a social media star before taking up training and boxing.

The event at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, was supposed to take place on July 20, but was postponed to Friday after Tyson suffered a stomach ulcer in May that limited his training for a period.