Jake Paul claims Mike Tyson viewing numbers were ‘bigger than the Super Bowl’ after crashing Netflix

According to the main event winner, the huge showdown between Jake Paul and Mike Tyson was a bigger hit than the Super Bowl.

Boxing icon Tyson returned to the ring at the age of 58 to take on social media star Paul, who was 31 years his junior. The heavyweight duo went the distance in Dallas and attracted significantly more viewers than expected – perhaps even to their detriment.

At times, viewers suffered extended outages, with Tyson's team claiming they had turned off Netflix and Paul noting that they had crashed the popular streaming platform. Most Valuable Promotions will announce viewing figures next week, and they are expected to be astronomical.

Jake Paul defeated Mike Tyson in a boring, but historic heavyweight match

Neither fight ended early Friday night at AT&T Stadium, with each bout ending in a decision. Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano put on a barn burner during the co-main event, which arguably saved the sporting aspect of the show before Jake Paul and Mike Tyson ended up in a damp squib.

Despite the threat of a major knockout, it seemed at times that Paul was keeping the aging Tyson alive as he chose not to press for the final blow throughout the eight rounds. 'Iron Mike' flew out of the trap early and seemed to earn the respect of his brutal rival with a few big shots.

Photo by Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile via Getty Images

But it finally ended with Paul bowing to his opponent and declaring that he loved him as they finished the final seconds. In the end, the scorecards were unanimously in Paul's favor, with two judges giving Tyson only one round and another giving him the first two rounds.

After almost a year of build-up, the fight didn't quite live up to the hype. But it was saved by stunning undercard displays from Taylor and Serrano and the split draw of Mario Barrios and Abel Ramos earlier in the card.

Jake Paul claims the Mike Tyson fight could have been more watched than the Super Bowl

The event was such a huge success on Netflix that it may even have become a problem for the promotion. Throughout the night, viewers around the world complained about glitches in their coverage as they tried to watch the event.

But Paul praised the company's technical team for solving the problem and hailed a hugely successful evening. He even teased that the event “could have been bigger than the Super Bowl,” which reportedly drew 123 million viewers across platforms earlier this year.

“Everyone is ecstatic,” Paul told Bloody Elbow at the post-fight press conference. “Shout out to them, great partners, great people, we couldn't be happier with our partnership and how everything went.

“I think it was six times the numbers I thought, but the numbers are still coming in so it could be more. But bigger than the Super Bowl? That's a little teaser right there. Netflix crashed, yes, but shout out to the Netflix engineers: we love you, they fixed it right away.

Nakisa Bidarian, co-founder of Paul's MVP, added: “The plan is to release the numbers sometime next week. Let's just say there were a lot more people watching than Floyd Mayweather vs. Manny Pacquiao or Floyd Mayweather vs. Conor McGregor, a lot more.”

Paul had previously told Bloody Elbow that the promotion's success would have led to the toppling of January's NFL Wild Card game between eventual Super Bowl winners the Kansas City Chiefs and the Miami Dolphins, which set the livestream record for a sporting event had settled at 32.1 million. viewers.

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