Twitch exists for gaming content. Sure, you can find other stuff on there—music has been gaining more of a presence of late—but it’s still primarily a place to play or watch games. So it’s probably not a surprise to hear that trying to illegally stream a boxing match is considered a big no-no.
Yes, even if it’s the biggest fight of the year...not that this stopped people from trying tonight. There are reports around the web of people who tried to broadcast the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight through their Twitch stream, only to get their channel banned from the service. You’d think people would have the common sense not to do this, but...
Personally I saw someone put up a Twitch stream of the fight...
...only to get banned approximately five minutes later:
A different stream bootlegging the fight had hundreds of people watching it live:
A common tactic is to name the broadcast after the two fighters, and once there are enough people in there, the streamer changes the name of the broadcast.
There are also a number of people trying to advertise their ‘services’ on Twitter:
The Twitch rules of conduct clearly state that broadcasts such as these—which feature no gaming whatsoever—are not allowed. Nevermind, you know, the legalities of trying to do this (breaking the law on Twitch is also not allowed, understandably so).
We reached out to Twitch to get a sense of how many people have tried to do this tonight, but they did not respond in time for publication. It’s worth noting that if you want to combine your love of boxing with Twitch, there are still plenty of gaming streamers out there who are holding discussions about the fight!