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If you could buy stock in someone’s career, Sibley Scoles would be a very wise play. The 36-year-old former rapper has started to make quite a name for herself in the world of broadcasting in both entertainment and sports. She has had a quick rise in combat sports and is part of the Netflix team covering the Mike Tyson-Jake Paul fight.
Scoles has worked for Access Hollywood and E! News hosting various red-carpet events. She is also the game day host for the Las Vegas Raiders, has her own production company and is having about as much fun as one can have right now.
I caught up with her as she was in Dallas, the day before the fight.
Dave Greene: How do you describe yourself, Sibley? There are so many different things that you’ve done and experienced at such a young age. How do you tell people who you are and what you do?
Sibley Scoles: Oh my gosh, if I were to break it down, I don’t have a term. I don’t have any specifics on how I got here. I never quit on myself and I’m open to opportunities that interest me.
I did music my whole life and I got an opportunity to host a music show early on and I kind of just took it from there and realized live music and being on stage and conducting the crowd was pretty much what I took into hosting. I grew up watching MTV and VH1 seeing all those hosts and they were very different than hosts are today. I mean, I had a mohawk when I started at E! News and I just was kind of raw talent.
I don’t just show up as talent and so I’ve taught myself along the way and I landed here in sports, and I just take the opportunities. I seize the day, figure things out as I go, and it’s just been great.
And now here with Netflix is kind of full circle for me because when I first started red carpets, the ‘Live from E!’ broadcast team, a lot of them are here now at Netflix and so I get to work with them again almost 10 years later.
DG: What about your love for sports, where did that come from?
SS: So, I always tell this story. I grew up in a household where sports was our love language. My parents met at a World Series game at the Oakland Coliseum and sports has just been something that’s been in our blood.
The Raiders are our team, and I now work for the Raiders so that’s another full circle moment that I never expected or even searched for that opportunity because I just never knew that was a possibility. But when it happened and I got the opportunity, a lot of these jobs, I pitch my ideas. Like I said, I don’t just come in as a talent. I come in to let them know I can help behind and in front of the camera.
So, the sports came from my parents. I give that up to them. I played basketball in high school and a bit in JUCO. Sports has just always been fun for me. I love it and working for the Raiders these last four years has just been a dream.
DG: And what about MMA and boxing? How did you get into that?
SS: So again, another opportunity. Give it up to Shawne Merriman who has the Lights Out brand, giving fighters an opportunity to get into that octagon. He had me come in as a newbie and do post-match interviews. So, I would go a few days early to watch the guys cut weight, meet their families. I really am great at getting involved in whoever is attached to the fighter. And I said to myself, listen, I’ll do this job. I don’t want to mess it up.
So, I will take what I don’t know and that specific knowledge of combat sports and just do my interviews like I do when I sit down with anyone, any other human being and just start from where the heart is at. And so that’s what I do. So, my interviews are more family oriented looking at who are you as a person, as opposed to breaking down the sport. And so, I literally learned from there. That would air on FUBO TV multiple times afterwards.
And then I believe it was MVP, which is Jake Paul’s promotions company. They saw me, I signed for some fights with MVP, and then it kind of just picked up from there.
DG: Since you’ve been around it and you’ve seen it, you’ve got a pretty good perspective of just how crazy the hype is for this fight compared to others. Can you believe the hype for Tyson-Paul?
SS: I mean, when you’ve got Netflix as the platform, it’s pretty cool. And then obviously Jake Paul, I mean, he’s brought back the entertainment aspect that boxing once had, when people came in with the fur coats and everyone really wants to be there because it’s entertainment. It is a beautiful sport. But it’s just kind of cool to have so many eyes on it. And now the generations that span across this card, you’ve never seen anything like that. The age ranges that you have and the caliber of boxers. I mean, this is a legit card. And Mike [Tyson], I’m working with his son Amir on this card as well, and he’s said this, and Roy Jones Jr. said it too, that when they fought, Mike wasn’t in shape. Not in this shape, in this condition. He said, ‘he’s a beast.’
DG: What exactly will you do on the main broadcast?
SS: I’ve already done the open workouts, I hosted that, which was awesome because I got face time with every fighter. And yesterday, I got to meet all the folks in a team meeting. Doing a lot of social today for MVP to cover the final weigh-ins. And then tomorrow for the broadcast, I will be right after the prelims. The main event, I will be talking to all of the celebrities, kind of getting back to my red carpet days. I’ll have my own VIP area where all the VIPs will be at. Otherwise, I will just be running around, pitching ideas with my producer to the trucks.
It’s going to be amazing and great to be a part of. I’ve been just using my personal relationships as well to see who will be ringside, who will be at the fights, who will be here this week to get as many interviews as I possibly can. And we’ll bank those, and those will go to air.
DG: Sounds to me like you will get to have a lot of fun and be a part of the creative process?
SS: I never want to step on anyone’s toes when I work with teams. But I’m so independent when I am on sets because I’ve been doing it for so long. I’m comfortable in all these spaces. For me, if I’m committing to something, I’m going to go all the way.
DG: What do you make of Jake Paul as a boxer?
SS: I think this is going to be a really big, major, huge change in his life once he gets into that ring with Mike Tyson. But I will say, watching him for the last two years that I’ve witnessed, personally and done interviews with him back-to-back at MVP, he’s grown as a fighter. He takes it seriously. He loves the sport. And I think he’s ready. He’s got the mouthpiece for it as well. He knows he’s always got a response. And he knows how to put on a show. He knows how to entertain. He is taking it seriously. He’s changed teams up recently, too, added more guys. It’s just been cool to see his progression. And the fact that he takes it seriously, like that’s what I look at. And his mom was ringside for the weigh-ins.
DG: Have you, can you, or will you make a prediction?
SS: I’m not going to make a prediction. I want to see a good fight. I know they’re not going to go the distance. I would love to see a knockout. I love when the heavyweights get in there. That’s my favorite weight class. And I just think it’s going to be a whole slugfest.
And again, the eyes that will be on during this fight, I think they said 280 million. The numbers are going to be insane. And again, spanning over different generations and different ages and new people who have never even watched boxing before.
I think it’s going to be interesting to see what happens in there. But again, talking to Mike at open workouts, seeing him this week and just the intensity that he has, he’s not messing around.
DG: What’s next for you? Do you have your sights set on certain things or just going to continue taking opportunities as they come?
SS: I’m already in that transition right now of manning the ship behind the scenes. I have my production company, Teeny Rich Production, that I started the same time I started in boxing. I actually just completed principal photography on a documentary, which is now going to be a feature with a boxer named Julian ‘Quiet Storm’ Smith. He’s got an incredible story. We are currently looking for a home for it. And that’s going to be one of my first projects. I have two others that I’m going to start working on at the top of the year.
So that is the goal for me to get back to creativity behind the scenes. And then getting back into the music space that I started in, because whether it’s music that I do or another artist, because I have a lot of relationships in that field as well, and just be a full-fledged production company.
Dave Greene is the Chief Media Officer for Barrett Media. His background includes over 25 years in media and content creation. A former sports talk host and play-by-play broadcaster, Dave transitioned to station and sales management, co-founded and created a monthly sports publication and led an ownership group as the operating partner. He has managed stations and sales teams for Townsquare Media, Cumulus Media and Audacy. Upon leaving broadcast media he co-founded Podcast Heat, a sports and entertainment podcasting network specializing in pro wrestling nostalgia. To interact, find him on Twitter @mr_podcasting. You can also reach him by email at Dave@BarrettMedia.com.
