Tyson vs Paul fight plagued by technical glitches and glitches on live stream

On By Littum

(Updated with more details) Netflix’s much-hyped and much-delayed live fight tonight between Mike Tyson and Jake Paul is getting some hits even before the former heavyweight champion and YouTuber-turned-boxer has climbed into the ring.

From almost the start of the undercard fights from AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, the streamer has been freezing, losing audio and showing slow to reload. Although it didn’t completely crash like Netflix did back then Luke Cage launched on the streamer in October 2016, the audio on the feed cut out repeatedly and the quality of the image was reduced to smeared pixels repeatedly.

Across the country, fight fans have taken to social media to air their grievances — to put it politely.

“This live stream from #Netflix is terrible, @Cali_Baba wrote on X/Twitter early in the multi-match. “Buffering on and off, pixelated picture, muffled sound,” he said in complaints that were common on Friday. “They wanted the big event and they’re fumbling with it. If I had purchased a subscription to this event, I would not be demanding a refund until tomorrow.”

Tonight’s games were the most ambitious live sporting event Ted Sarando’s and Greg Peter’s run Netflix has ever pulled off. But with all the issues customers encountered, the streamer had no comment on the technical issues when contacted by Deadline.

Still, Jerry Jones said it all for many when the Dallas Cowboys owner’s microphone died in the 80,000-plus stadium and online as he praised the work with Netflix. As well as soon to be perennial home of WWE’s Monday Night Raw, Netflix is ​​showing live NFL games on Christmas Day.

When #NetflixCrash and #unwatchable trended online, Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy went for less is more criticism.

The feed from one of Barstool Sports’ hosts also summed up what many fight fans were feeling at home.

In the run-up to 58-year-old Tyson and 27-year-old Paul squaring off with their dukes in the former’s first professional fight in almost 20 years, Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano fight for the IBF, WBA, WBC and WBO titles. While Paul is seen as the favorite against the man known as Iron Mike, Serrano is considered to have the advantage over the Irish fighter in their rematch following the 2022 headliner at Madison Square Garden.

In that vein, digital stumbles and all, tonight’s fight certainly felt like the classic Tyson fights of the 1980s and 1990s — at least in terms of format.

Like HBO matches from years past, Netflix’s coverage of the match featured a lot of self-promotion Play octopus and Cobra Kai cameos and promos get airtime, and stars like Furoisa herself Charlize Theron, Joe Jonas, NBA legend Shaq O’Neil and NFL legend Rob Gronkowski ringside. Going true old skool, the streamer set interviews with Paul and Tyson to the locker room, including a lingering shot of the latter walking away with his back exposed in a jockstrap. We could have done without that butt shot there,” said Do the right thing star Rosie Perez aka “First Lady of Boxing” on commentary along with Cedric the Entertainer and others.

For some, that shot was frozen, on their screens and in their minds.

Or as Public Enemy’s Flavor Flav so perfectly put it:

Glenn Garner contributed to this report