Boxing ended 2025 with a knockout.

Not literally—the November fight between Jake Paul and Mike Tyson didn’t have quite that much action—but the viewership packed a punch for Netflix, with 65 million concurrent streams at the event’s peak, and more than 1.4 billion impressions on Netflix’s social channels, according to the streamer. The hashtag #PaulTyson also trended worldwide on X, and even those who don’t use the platform may have seen posts about it in other social feeds or heard talk of it in a sports bar.

It was a rare breakthrough moment for boxing, which, despite having a handful of major global stars and a growing cohort of influencer boxers, largely lacks the household names and regular cultural moments that make sports, like football and basketball, a lock for big brands.

“It got everyone talking about boxing,” said Michael Mobley, SVP of media at Dazn, a sports streaming and entertainment platform that offers boxing.

In the months after Paul vs. Tyson especially, the sport’s traditional players experienced something of a trickle-down effect, seeing boosts in audience engagement and fielding calls from interested advertisers.

“It’s helped us across our social platforms,” Brian Kelly, CRO of the boxing production and promotion company Top Rank, told Marketing Brew. “We saw fan engagements around that fight, after that fight, increase. We saw some follower growth as well. It was such a sports cultural moment. Boxing isn’t always thought of as the big four in the United States when it comes to sports consumption and sports investment, but that certainly had an impact.”

Continue reading here.—AM

Turns out, many creators want to be more than just mouthpieces. They want to be marketers.

But a recent survey from influencer marketing agency Influencer, which sampled 500 creators primarily from the UK and North America, found that there are plenty of perception gaps that exist between brands and creators, including beliefs around how involved creators can or want to be in the marketing process.

Misalignment: Contrary to popular belief, only 12% of creators produce content full-time, and that number only rises slightly to 25% among what the survey refers to as big-name creators, which means most creators are juggling various jobs. Even with their busy schedules, around two-thirds of creators said they want to learn more about brand KPIs, with more than half saying that the knowledge would help them better tailor their content strategies. Around 25% of the creators surveyed cited poor communication as a frustration that came from working with brands.

Communication gaps between brands and creators have led both parties to prioritize different things, the survey found. While both parties are focused on engagement as the No. 1 priority when it comes to KPIs, creators’ No. 2 focus is on content and creativity, which brands ranked as No. 5 behind metrics like follower growth, reach, and conversion.

Read more more here about what creators say they need.—KH

Women’s sports organizations around the world are expected to generate $2.35 billion in revenue this year, according to a new report from Deloitte, a 25% increase from last year driven primarily by commercial revenue growth.

While basketball and soccer lead the pack, according to Deloitte’s findings, the report is the latest indication that niche sports like volleyball and cricket are also attracting growing interest from brands.

Pick up the pace: Women’s sports organizations brought in $1.88 billion in 2024, according to Deloitte, beating its original forecast of $1.28 billion. Last year marked the first time that women’s sports crossed the billion-dollar mark, up from $981 million in 2023 and $692 million in 2022.

In each of the past three years, commercial revenue, which includes sponsorships and merchandise sales, has accounted for the largest share of overall revenue for women’s sports. Matchday and broadcast earnings make up smaller pieces of the pie, though matchday revenue is on the rise, Deloitte found.

Commercial revenue on its own generated more than $1 billion for the first time last year, per Deloitte, and it is expected to reach $1.26 billion this year. That would make up 54% of women’s sports revenue for the year, a smaller share than each of the three years prior.

Matchday revenue is predicted to account for 21% of overall revenue this year, down from 24% last year, but up from 14% in 2023 and 11% in 2022.

Read more here.—AM

Tune in to episode 2 of The Refill, the all-new AI-voiced audio recap of the Marketing Brew stories that drive your marketing career forward. Hear from your favorite industry reporters like never before. Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your audio media every Thursday.

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