As Mike Tyson entered the boxing ring in Arlington looking every bit of 58-years-old on Friday night, I took to X (or maybe it was BlueSky) to express the sadness I felt watching the scene.
But as I went to post my super original thought that I felt compelled to share with the world, I realized there was a strong possibility that it was already outdated. Based on the screenshots that were already filling my social media feed, the fight wasn’t just already underway, but had already completed at least one round.
Nevertheless, my blurry Netflix stream remained focused on the fight’s introductions, despite the fact that I had just reentered the allegedly live feed moments earlier after it had cut out during Paul’s entrance. This proved to be a reoccurring theme throughout the night, with the MethStreams-esque display routinely pausing to buffer, often crapping out at 25 percent.
My experience was hardly unique and didn’t seem to be limited to any particular streaming device, internet connection or location. No matter where or how you watched the event, most experienced it as a total debacle — to say nothing of the eight-round snoozefest Paul ultimately won via unanimous decision.
My original assignment was to review Netflix’s presentation of the high profile sporting event, which comes a month before the streamer is set to host NFL games on Christmas Day and two months before it becomes the weekly home of WWE Raw. My plan was to focus on aspects such as the production (which I thought was fine) and the commentary (which I thought was bad). Unfortunately, the technical difficulties created a barrier to entry for me that was practically impossible to clear.
To spend an entire column complaining about Mauro Ranallo’s forced pop culture references or him and Roy Jones Jr.’s repeated disagreements about why Tyson was seemingly biting his own glove would feel disingenuous considering such aspects were merely footnotes for most viewers, including myself. When people look back at Paul vs. Tyson, there are likely only two things they’ll remember: how much of a circus it truly was and how impossible it seemed to watch.
The former is a story for another day, but the latter is somewhat surprising, even if Netflix’s limited track record of live programming includes at least one other debacle. Still, the streamer presumably knew that the demand to watch this event would be its highest ever and either its servers somehow weren’t prepared or it has even bigger issues to fix before its Christmas Day doubleheader.
Regardless of what the particular issue was on Friday night, it’s hard to have much confidence in Netflix’s capabilities when it comes to live programming moving forward. If Peacock can routinely air English Premier League matches and WWE Premium Live Events without a hitch, then it’s more than curious why the alleged king of streaming services still hasn’t figured out how to do the same in 2024.
All eyes were already going to be on Netflix come Christmas — the NFL is king, after all — but that’s especially going to be the case after Friday’s failure. It’s one thing to mess up a freak show — in many ways, the technical difficulties felt apropos — but another to deprive people of promised NFL action and if Netflix doesn’t deliver, then it’s going to be fair to wonder where it truly fits into sports’ streaming wars.
