Mark Borkowski is the PR maestro who has worked with everyone from Mikhail Gorbachev to Diego Maradona to Jim Rose, an American exhibitionist who hung weights from his penis. Borkowski also helped Ian Botham recreate Hannibal’s walk through the Alps with elephants, and for his sins he was the mastermind behind Cliff Richard’s Savior’s Day which reached Christmas No. 1 despite minimal radio play. So who better to talk about the biggest sporting stunt of the year, Mike Tyson’s fight against Jake Paul, streaming into 300 million homes via Netflix this weekend?
Instinctively, as I told Borkowksi, I hate the idea. Most boxing fans do. It sells a myth that wasn’t even a reality in 2004, let alone 2024: namely, that Tyson is one of the fiercest warriors on the planet, and not a 58-year-old who lost 26 pounds in May after a flare-up of a stomach ulcer. causing him to vomit blood and tar. It puts Tyson’s boxing reputation and his health at risk. And aside from Netflix’s copious promotion, it feels more like a sham or a circus than a real sporting event.
But maybe I’m wrong. Certainly, Borkowksi thinks so. He believes the fight is straight out of the playbook of PT Barnum, the greatest showman of them all and a curator of the absurd and extraordinary, who instinctively knew what the audience wanted long before they did. And that it will penetrate to the masses.
“Barnum understood how to engage the crowd – the great herd, the great unwashed,” he says. “This fight is about opportunism. It’s about creative thinking. And it is already generating the oxygen of publicity, which is always an indication that something is going to be very successful.”
As Borkowski notes, the fight taps into two major markets: Boomers and Gen Xers, who grew up watching Tyson, and the younger generations who adore Jake Paul, many of whom will want to watch.
“A lot of people, especially guys, project themselves into male influencers like Paul,” he says. “In some ways they are their best friends – whether it’s watching them play Call of Duty, or seeing the Jackass-influenced generation of pranksters doing outrageous things on social media. So they will keep an eye on this. And that includes those who grew up with Tyson in his prime. So while purists may grimace, there is a market for this. And Netflix knows it.”
But it’s not quite sport, is it? Borkowksi does not object. But he’s not sure it matters as long as the fight – in the early hours of Saturday, UK time – produces results one way or another. “The root of this fight is absolutely World Wrestling Entertainment,” he said. “It’s a fusion of sports and entertainment. You feel like some of it is staged. Will someone get seriously hurt? I doubt it since they wear 14 ounce gloves. So it’s more WWE than WBA.”
Then he delivers the ultimate approval. “I would love to come up with something like that,” he says.
Borkowksi isn’t the only one who believes Netflix is on to a winner. Adam Kelly, the president of media at global sports rights agency IMG, feels much the same way. And having worked closely with the Ultimate Fighting Championship and Al Haymon to help promote and stage Floyd Mayweather vs. Conor McGregor in 2017, he sees Tyson vs. Paul having similar crossover appeal.
Kelly’s premise is that in a world where TV ratings are declining, sports are definitely bucking the trend with record ratings for the NFL, the Olympics, the European Championships and the Women’s NBA. So naturally the media and technology giants like Netflix and Amazon are starting to focus more on live sports and using them to generate subscriptions and sell products. And given their business acumen, would you bet against them?
“This fight is much bigger than boxing,” he says. “This is the path and the roadmap that will prove the model for Netflix when it comes to sports.”
after newsletter promotion
Kelly predicts that Tyson vs. Paul will be “one of the biggest fights ever televised.” Why? Due to a combination of Netflix’s massive subscriber base, its algorithm’s ability to push people towards new content, and the intrigue surrounding the battle.
And he has a message for purists, who have turned their noses at Mayweather and McGregor and continue to roll their eyes at influencers like Paul in their sport. “These fights have encouraged new fans and sparked a new wave of interest in boxing,” he points out. “If boxing only appeals to a hardcore fan base, with technical fighting, it will eventually die out. Because the audience will grow older, and then die.”
It is a warning that applies to all sports. “You have to continually try to build your audience,” says Kelly. “And that means creating a product that specifically appeals to people who are not your current fans. If you don’t do that, you’ll be on a shrinking iceberg.”
I don’t agree. But I still cringe when I hear Netflix promote the Arlington, Texas fight as the “biggest name in social media against the biggest name in boxing,” or when I see Muhammad Ali’s former manager Gene Kilroy recently say to Tyson: “This is the strongest I’ve ever seen you. This is not just shameless hype. It’s misleading nonsense.
It brings to mind the old saying, often wrongly attributed to Barnum, that a sucker is born every minute. Barnum is also said to have once said, “Every crowd has a silver lining.” Which, when it comes to this uncomfortable spectacle, seems somewhat appropriate.
-
Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? To submit an email response of up to 300 words to be considered for publication in our letters section, click here.