IRVING, Texas – On his way to weigh in for his contest with Ben Askren in April 2021, Jake Paul turned to his team and mused, “Guys, I have a crazy idea: What if I fought Mike Tyson?” It was a notion that his trainer, J’Leon Love, promptly shot down. Tyson, he explained, knew things about the nuances of boxing that Paul would never know.

Fast forward a year, and during a hallucinogenic episode after drinking ayahuasca, Paul pictured himself fighting Tyson.

“We haven't put it out, but we have video of Jake calling Mike two years ago to say, ‘I had this vision, and I want to do this fight,’” Nakisa Bidarian, co-founder of Paul’s MVP Promotions, told BoxingScene. “He said, 'I love you, but I feel like this would be the biggest thing ever for boxing.’ And Mike was like, ‘Yeah, brother, whatever you think. I'm down, let me know.’” 

The idea was placed on the back burner while Paul developed his boxing career, but then last October, Tyson’s team called Bidarian to express an interest in going ahead with the fight on pay-per-view. By then, however, Bidarian had another plan in mind.

“I said, ‘I'm working on something. We're looking at a lot of options, but once I have it in place, I'll come to you, and I think it's going to be a lot more value-enhancing for everyone – not from a money perspective, but from a brand perspective.’”

That something was a partnership with Netflix, the most-subscribed video-on-demand streaming media service in the world, with 282.7 million subscribers in more than 190 countries.

In July 2023, Netflix released an episode of its “Untold” sports documentary series that focused on Paul, an experience that both parties enjoyed; the following month, Bidarian invited Netflix executives to Paul’s fight with Nate Diaz in Dallas, and the two sides agreed to create the first-ever live sporting event on the platform.

“We signed the deal on November 1 of 2023, and it was a deal signed between MVP and Netflix,” said Bidarian. At that point, no opponent was in the mix until Bidarian brought up Tyson’s name – but once he did, it was clear that that was the direction everyone involved wanted to take. Bidarian returned to Team Tyson in December, and “by late February, early March,” the deal was in place.

"Friday night will be the first-ever live professional sporting event on Netflix, and the second one will be the NFL on Christmas Day,” Bidarian continued. “So, it's pretty amazing that boxing gets this first seat with this partner.”

Netflix chose not to make a spokesperson available to speak on the record about the event or the company’s interest in remaining involved in the sport beyond Friday, but, said Bidarian, "If Netflix were idiots, they would have done a multi-fight deal with me, but they're the best media company in the world for a reason, and it's all about, ‘How does this event do?’ They’re rolling the dice, just like we're rolling the dice. And I'm rolling the dice because there is a chance that Mike Tyson knocks Jake Paul the fuck out. There's a big chance of that in the first few rounds, maybe even in the later rounds. Jake’s never been hit by someone like that. So, you know, they're rolling the dice with us. I think if it does well, I absolutely expect to continue doing things with them. We have certain mechanisms in the contract that speak to that. But if it doesn't do well, why would they continue?”

The seemingly throwaway contest between Brazilian influencer and boxing neophyte Whindersson Nunes and Indian boxer Nuraj Goyat is a key part of the appeal to the streamer.

“Whindersson is a massive star in Brazil; he has twice as many followers across social media as Jake,” Bidarian explained. “Brazil is one of Netflix's most important markets, and Whindersson has had a number of boxing matches. And so, it made sense to try to get him and to put Brazil versus India on the card.”

Even if the Netflix partnership proves to have legs, Bidarian is keen to emphasize his interest in continuing to also work with other platforms, particularly DAZN.

“DAZN is an amazing platform,” he said. “They're a partner of ours. We love them. They're like the saving grace of boxing right now. But if we just live in that world going forward, our sport’s going to become irrelevant. Our ethos or mission is to be disruptive and be a platform for the next generations. We're trying to do different things that connect with fans and make boxing something that's more relevant. We love working with Netflix, but we also love working with DAZN and every other player out there. It's all about what's the right platform for the right product, and this product makes sense on Netflix.”

Kieran Mulvaney has written, broadcast and podcasted about boxing for HBO, Showtime, ESPN and Reuters, among other outlets. He also writes regularly for National Geographic, has written several books on the Arctic and Antarctic, and is at his happiest hanging out with wild polar bears. His website is .