The Grudge Match has been the punchy storyline for boxing audiences since Muhammad Ali’s famous pre-fight tussle with Ernie Terrell in 1967 when the ‘Octopus’ called Ali by his forsaken name, Cassius Clay.
The spat set the scene for Ali outpointing Terrell comprehensively over 15 rounds in what was arguably the most outstanding performance in The Greatest’s career.
So when heavyweight boxing icon Mike Tyson, 57, enters the ring to fight American YouTube star Jake Paul, 27, streamed live from the Dallas Cowboys’ AT&T Stadium – it follows a well-pummelled audience narrative: Legend vs Upstart.
For the uninitiated, Mike Tyson is the former undisputed heavyweight boxing world champion and Jake Paul is the younger brother of fellow You Tube star and part-time pugilist Logan.
Tyson’s legendary status is potentially both tragic and heroic and in a sense Mike can’t lose.
Upstart Paul’s odds are less forgiving but if he loses, there is the Wilderness Years story waiting for him where he reassesses his place in the world, United Nations ambassador etc.
So no one really loses, not least of all Netflix, the heavyweight champion of the streaming world who
air the show as another Netflix first, with the potential to engineer an audience drawn from 190 countries to a 260-million paid subscriber base.
It is the media giant’s latest swing in the live sports arena, following golf tournament The Netflix Cup, tennis tournament The Netflix Slam, featuring a match between Rafael Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz and the jewel in the global crown of exclusive live wrestling rights WWE Raw.
Netflix may have the audience breadth but Legend Mike Tyson has the depth as host of the HotBoxin’ podcast which attracts 40 million listeners, while Iron Mike’s digital reach is a sucker punch at 400 million plus a lead uppercut of 1.4 billion impressions across his social medias.
Upstart Jake Alexander Paul is a YouTube star with over 20 million subscribers and 73 billion lifetime views on his channel. He’s boxing clever on social media too with a cumulative 75-million follower base across Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat and YouTube.
Mike Tyson said in a statement that he was looking forward to fighting the youngster, 30 years his junior, and was magnanimous with faint praise for Luke Paul,
“He’s grown significantly as a boxer over the years, so it will be a lot of fun to see what the will and ambition of a ‘kid’ can do with the experience and aptitude of a GOAT. It’s a full circle moment that will be beyond thrilling to watch; as I started him on his boxing journey on the undercard of my fight with Roy Jones and now I plan to finish him.”
In the strictest tradition of the Legend vs Upstart narrative, expect the language and behaviour from each corner to become more pugnacious and less gentlemanly. I literally can’t wait.