Jake Paul is slick – in the boxing ring and outside of it. His ability to attract eyeballs makes him one of the biggest stars in sports, and one of the biggest attractions on Netflix. Wait, bigger than Stranger Things? It’s closer than you may think, but more on that later.
The Paul-Netflix hookup started like an old-fashioned romance, says Nakisa Bidarian, Paul’s partner at MVP Promotions. “MVP was the first to court Netflix and get on the knee and propose, ‘Will you marry me?’ And that was really the genesis of boxing coming to Netflix,” Bidarian told Forbes in an exclusive interview.
The streaming giant leaped into the squared circle when it aired Paul’s match against the iconic Mike Tyson in November 2024 and drew a reported 108 million live global viewers, making it the most-streamed sporting event ever.
More massive viewership is expected Friday night when Netflix airs Paul’s clash with former heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua at Miami’s Kaseya Center.
Bidarian’s estimate sits at 50-55 million viewers for Paul-Joshua; that would be about 15 million more viewers than the first four games of the 2025 NBA finals – combined.
“Netflix said, ‘Great, let’s do more,’” Bidarian said of building a slate of boxing events to dovetail off the Paul-Tyson bonanza. “We talked about a long-term partnership. Credit to them.”
Meanwhile, in an industry in which eyeballs matter most, Paul has proven he can go toe-to-toe with the biggest heavyweight of them all: Stranger Things. Yes, it’s an apples-vs.-oranges matchup to pit an event’s live viewership against a TV show’s views, but hey, why not?
Stranger Things’ season-5 premiere earlier this month reached a 59.6 million views in its first five days, making it Netflix’s biggest English-language debut ever. Paul-Joshua should approach that number in live viewership and Paul-Tyson nearly doubled the hit show’s record-breaking numbers.
Viewership alone makes Bidarian believe that Netflix will continue “to be a meaningful player in big boxing.”
And “big boxing” doesn’t just mean airing Jake Paul fights. Netflix and MVP teamed up on the first-ever all-women’s professional boxing card headlined by Katie Taylor-Amanda Serrano III in July — a fight that become the most watched women’s professional sporting event of 2025 with 6 million viewers.
And a non-MVP boxing match that saw Terence Crawford dethrone super middleweight champion Canelo Álvarez drew a massive audience of 41 million viewers on Netflix this past September, according to the streamer.
It should be noted that Netflix’s metrics are a result of a combination of internal, non-audited data and measurement from VideoAmp, a challenger to Nielsen that’s not been granted accreditation from the Media Ratings Council, as reported by Front Office Sports.
Like Paul, Netflix has its own formula for success in the boxing ring: It leverages its production expertise to grow hype around live events through documentaries, behind-the-scenes features and other content. This transforms a single boxing match into a larger cultural moment, deepening engagement with sports fans. A prime example was Netflix’s first foray into the sport last November when it built out the ultimate spectacle when Paul fought Tyson.
Now comes arguably Paul’s greatest threat – his 8-rounder against Joshua, the 6-foot-4, 245-pound ex-champ, who, unlike many of Paul’s previous opponents, isn’t far from his prime and possesses devastating power as shown here in his demolition of Francis Ngannou:
A first-round KO of Paul could derail the Netflix-MVP gravy train, but Bidarian feels confident that won’t happen. “We’re obviously taking a big swing together here,” Bidarian said of the Joshua fight. “Jake Paul has fought on some of the biggest stages, and Anthony Joshua is on the other side of his career. I’m not saying he’s going down, but he’s definitely plateaued.”
Then, Bidarian paused for a second and said, “It’s just a perfect time for a young, hungry fighter, who’s well-experienced in terms of the moment.”
Yes, and no boxer today – or athlete for that matter – is creating bigger moments in terms of catching eyeballs than Jake Paul.
