In yet another case of balls of steel, one ingenious punter turned his US$2,500 (AUD$3151) bleacher seat to last weekend’s Floyd Mayweather Jr / Conor McGregor fight into a premium, $25,000 (AUD$31,515), tenth-row seat.
As previously reported, tickets sales were notoriously slow for the much-hyped match-up between the kings of boxing and MMA. This meant that, despite the magic of television making the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas appear full, there was actually a lot of spare seats to go around. So Oliver Regis, from the small English town of Stamford, Lincolnshire, decided to test his luck in getting a free upgrade to one of the empty ringside seats.
According to an interview with British tabloid The Sun, Oliver snuck past the main security with a larger group that he assumed was a part of Floyd Mayweather Jr’s entourage. Once there, he merely sat himself down in a vacant seat during the second-billed fight, between the likes of Mike Tyson, Lebron James, and Leonardo DiCaprio.
Once seats started to fill a bit more ahead of the main event, he decided to hedge his bets by getting up and mulling around in case the seat’s actual owner came forward. In the meantime, he was able to get a handful of jealousy-inducing selfies with some of the celebrities present.
Once the actual fight began, he was still able to find a seat. This time, he was in the tenth row, next to sporting legend and former X-Men star Vinnie Jones. Speaking with The Sun, Oliver said that he was so close his friends spotted him on TV.
My friends started texting me saying they had seen me on TV. It was very surreal, but it was the biggest fight in history!
I’m sure everyone will be talking about it when I go back. And I have the pictures to prove it!
After the fight, the die-hard McGregor fan (who even has a Notorious-inspired tattoo) simply snuck out of the stadium and returned to his hotel, officials none the wiser.
Some of you may note that this isn’t the first time someone has snuck through security during a McGregor / Mayweather event. Which raises the question, what it is with Brits and sneaking around this stuff?
In any case, way to get more bang for your buck, Oliver.
