Do not dismiss Jake Paul as the butt of the joke. The YouTuber turned boxer earned a reported $40m after for meeting Mike Tyson on Friday night in a highly anticipated fight in Arlington, Texas. More than 60 million households worldwide tuned in to watch the mismatch between 58-year-old Tyson and the 27-year-old Paul, according to Netflix. The fight went the full eight-round distance, but from the opening minutes it was evident Tyson would lose. His legs clung to the canvas while he bit his glove like a child dependent on a thumb, even as Paul’s hands frequently dropped to his waist. Paul did not win the bout because he is a great boxer; he won because Tyson was far too old. This narrative may sound eerily familiar. Donald Trump did not win the presidency because he was an infallible candidate; he won because Biden was too old to run again – and Biden, much like Tyson, didn’t realize his predicament until it was far too late.
Like Paul, Trump has long been a punchline. Until he pivoted to his current career, the reality TV star was underestimated due to his cringey persona. But as Americans have learned over the last decade, when Trump says he will do something, he will genuinely try to do it, and as the most recent election results have proven, he may very well succeed. The boastful celebrity who keeps saying he is the best until large segments of the population believe him is a rhetorical strategy not so different than what’s been attempted by Paul during his own pivot from influencer to professional boxer. In 2017, Paul cultivated what was then the fastest-growing channel in YouTube’s history, in part simply by declaring he would and manifesting it into existence.
Early in his boxing career, Paul dubbed himself ‘The Problem Child’. Paul is the embodiment of the United States having a problem child: an outlandish, insensitive, careless white man enraptured by his own ability to cause controversies. In recent years, the American colloquial lexicon increasingly leans on the term “problematic” to name the grey space of what is socially acceptable. The Problem Child, much like president-elect Trump, knows how to toe the line between criminality and harmless entertainment, between overtly racist and it’s just a bad joke!
The rhetorical parallels between Trump and Paul have become an explicit allegiance. Days before the election, Paul released an 18-minute video endorsing Trump. Paul likened Trump’s felony convictions to the founding fathers’ struggle for independence against the British. So it is no surprise that two weeks later, the crowd at the Tyson v Paul fight in Arlington looked very much like a Maga rally. After the fight, the journalist Mariya Moseley noted, “The number of Trump hats that I have seen tonight is absolutely crazy.” With tens of millions of households watching, Paul said in his victory speech:
“This night is not about me, man. I wanted to give a thanks to all the real heroes, the US military, the doctors, the nurses in the ER, the cops, the firefighters, the farmers, the truck drivers, all the people that make this world go ‘round. Thank you, America. It’s the era of truth. It’s the era of good. There’s a shift in the world and good is rising, the truth is rising. It is just an honor to be part of America. It feels like we’re back, baby.”
Who are the “we”, and where have they returned to? Are the “we” men who have been accused of sexual misconduct? Trump, Tyson and Paul have all been either indicted, incriminated or accused of sexual assault. Or, more generally, are the “we” those who endorse Trump’s elusive strand of white supremacy and sexism? Have they returned back into the spotlight, back in power? The underwhelming sparring session between Paul and Tyson was backlit by an increasingly mainstream agenda of ushering conservatism into popular culture. Trump’s rhetoric has proven durable in the last 10 years. Many Republican politicians adopted his manner of speaking, but now, the same is occurring beyond the realm of politics. Trumpian showmanship is becoming translatable to other spheres of influence like sports.
What Paul attempts and what Trump maintains is the pretense of authenticity despite mockery or dismissal. There does not need to be a calculated agenda at play, but rather a consistency in one’s messaging. Paul’s and Trump’s particular brand of notoriety is based on unapologetic sincerity, spurring a relatability among those who identify with the we of Paul’s speech.
On Friday night, as Tyson slumped deeper into his corner between rounds, he became a reminder that time cannot be turned back. Paul is right. A shift has taken place, shrouded in the spectacle of grandeur and showboating. Where Paul’s boxing career will go from here is unknown. He needs to fight boxers his own age, rather than faded MMA fighters and fellow YouTubers, to be taken seriously. But however he goes about things, you can be sure he will continue to popularize behavior that is, well, problematic.