Are Mike Tyson and Jake Paul Scamming Us?

It’s not always easy to spot a scam, but it can be. I’ve been on a crowded subway train when a group of guys got on and started excitedly betting money on a simple guessing game. A “stranger” guessed correctly and was handed one hundred dollars. He smiled nervously and then joined the group like he knew them (because he did). Scam. Once, I was in a room for a “moneymaking opportunity,” where two people in the group with me kept saying, “It’s so easy,” unprompted. Scam. I paid for MoviePass! Scam!

People still get scammed all the time. Even if some scams are easier to spot, some people are just f***ing dumb. They abandoned critical thinking long ago (if they possessed it at all). They are also more susceptible to bright, shiny things. Most of the scams I’ve witnessed have had “hype men.” That was a big red flag! But, for many, that’s the hook. They see other people get excited and get lured in. Scammers know that and try to build as much excitement around their scam as possible.

Which reminds me. Did you know there is a giant boxing match happening on Netflix tonight? It’s true! The fight will be between two fellas who are not well-liked (both for different reasons, depending on your age). Still, one of these fellas is so disliked that folks are hoping the other disliked fella will knock him silly. But there’s the rub! The slightly less disliked fella is almost 60 years old and his opponent is in his 20s! Surely you’ll want to witness these beefy behemoths (Jake Paul and Mike Tyson) batter each other to bits!

But will they do that? There has always been pageantry and hype around boxing. There are threats and intimidation. There is posing and posturing. But for this fight, it feels dialed up to eleven in a way that also feels unbelievable. I’m sure Mike Tyson is confident, but he’s going up against someone half his age. Paul is likely too dumb to fear a man who has bitten off someone’s ear during a fight, but he could also know things aren’t going to go that far.

For those unaware, Paul has a brother of equal or shittier value. Jake and Logan Paul got YouTube famous for being dickheads and are now multi-millionaires. Their fame and fortune have allowed them to get into different sports. Jake got into boxing, Logan got into pro wrestling. Logan is an annoyingly good pro-wrestler, in the sense that he knows people despise him and is willing to lean into that. He knows the more people dislike him, the more they’ll tune in to see him get beat, and he rarely has, which keeps people coming back. Sound familiar?

I can’t say for sure what will happen tonight, but it feels like a “work” to put things in wrestling terms. These two have been threatening and slapping each other to build hype; they’re going to go easy, make millions of dollars, and set up a rematch for next year. No one is going to get beaten to a pulp. Tyson isn’t going to do anything crazy. Paul isn’t going to surprise us with his skill. To quote Tracy Jordan, “What’s the past tense for scammed? Is it scrumpt? Liz Lemon, I think you just got scrumpt.”