The apparent beggar fights the real beggar. The apparent criminal competes with the real criminal for the crowd's approval. Crowd underestimates the power of the hero. Crowd underestimates the power of Odysseus. Crowd underestimates the power of Jesus.
Author creates irony by having the crowd side with the villain.
Crowd sides with Irus, the real beggar, an insolent braggart. Crowd sides with Barabbas, the real criminal. Author creates irony again, at the end of the contest, by having crowd hail the person who will eventually rule over and destroy them. Of course, this unlikely contest probably only took place in the creative imagination of Mark, who wanted to create for his readers a parable teaching the goodness of Jesus and the evilness of his persecutors. An Unlikely Practice MacDonald notes that there is no evidence independent of Mark that it was ever the custom at feasts for the Romans to release a prisoner requested by the Jews.