It was morbid curiosity that made me tune into the live Netflix boxing match between Jake Paul and Mike Tyson on Saturday night. The broadcast had technical problems and the fight itself was slow and tedious. But there was something else that kept me watching: all the jokes floating around Bluesky.
That kind of real-time social experience is a big part of what made x feel so vital when it was still called twitter. Whether it was the World Cup, a presidential election, or a Nintendo Direct, having so many people posting in one place made it feel alive, an experience that Meta's Threads, with its algorithmic streaming, hasn't been able to replicate. But at least for a brief moment Saturday night, Bluesky did.
The Paul vs. match Tyson was actually a near-perfect confluence of events for Bluesky. The site has seen an increase in signups over the past week, including several defectors from x. While I've had an account since last year, it wasn't until last week that I started posting and building my follower list. . The push coincided with Netflix's biggest bet yet on live streaming. So when I tuned into the Netflix fight, I thought it was a good time to see how well Bluesky held up in terms of creating a second-screen experience to follow.
It did not disappoint. Before the main event, there was a good fight between Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano. The fight itself had it all: big momentum swings, dangerous headbutts, and a controversial decision in Taylor's favor that led to some great post-fight quotes. It was when Serrano's trainer, Jordan Maldonado, uttered the hilarious line “Katie is a beautiful person, but she has an extremely large head” that my feed really started to come to life.
Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images
Then came possibly the most important moment of the night, one that had nothing to do with boxing. In a pre-match interview, Tyson was calm and collected while talking to his son, only to turn around and accidentally reveal his bare butt in front of the millions of viewers watching at home. Meme accounts got to workand apparently everyone I followed had something to say about it. It reminded me a little of The infamous Oscar slapjust less uncomfortable.
From there, my feed included many people complaining about how tame the fight between Paul and Tyson was (especially after the Taylor vs. Serrano high), as well as the quality of the broadcast itself, which often appeared pixelated as the transmission went down. and included some other drawbacks, such as non-working microphones. Many wondered aloud why we were all watching this.
I know I would have tuned out if it weren't for that real-time feedback, which can improve even the most mundane live experience. Sometimes a bad event becomes really fun. because of online chat. And perhaps the most notable thing about Bluesky on Saturday night was that it was nothing extraordinary: It felt like the twitter of yesteryear. And that's exactly what Bluesky needs to continue growing.
Sports are huge on social media, and as x's grip on that space has loosened, many have struggled to replicate it elsewhere. Threads seemed like an ideal space given the scale of its user base, but its algorithm-based feed makes real-time conversation difficult. In fact, the day after the fight, I checked Threads only to see posts from 20 hours ago when the fight was still on. If Bluesky can manage the technical challenges of its growing user base, it could become the alternative that sports fans like me are looking for.
