Mayweather Vs. McGregor

For a cool $20,000, you can grab a pair of ringside seats for whatever it is Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor are doing in Las Vegas on Aug. 26.

Mayweather, the boxer, and McGregor, the UFC hero, have toured to promote this epic bout between the former, who doesn’t like to get hit, and the latter, who has never boxed professionally.

They’ve insulted each other, blabbed about how much money they have or will have – this is standard fare for Mayweather, self-nicknamed Money – in hopes of drawing huge pay-per-view numbers and a sellout at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. They just might do it.

But while fans are eating this up (for free so far), they’re not rushing the box office. The Los Angeles Times reports that 3,000 tickets remain, along with 4,000 more on the secondary market. The arena can hold 20,000 for boxing and UFC events.

Let’s call a phony event a phony event. A couple of weeks back we got sold a bill of goods regarding Olympian Michael Phelps swimming against a shark. Turned out to be a computer simulation of a shark. Go back to 1976 when Muhammad Ali fought (or grappled or mostly got kicked by) a wrestler named Antonio Inoki in Japan.

Spectacle? Sure. Sporting event? Not so much.

The cheapest Mayweather-McGregor tickets ($500) sold out quickly. One assumes they will come with telescopes so that the fans in those seats can see anything at all. Mid-level seats are $3,500. If you’d care to stay home and watch this in high def? A mere $99.95. Let your friendly neighborhood blog know if you are ponying up Mr. C Note to stay home and he will be happy to come over and bring a pizza (slices start at $200 and scale up to $750 with extra cheese and a rich coating of fatty meats).

Buy what you want. Spend what you like. Just don’t tell your friendly neighborhood blog that you paid to see a sporting event. You paid to see a show. Hope you like it.
 
 
Post By: Larry Weisman, a longtime sportswriter for USA TODAY, blogs for Twistity.com. Follow him on Twitter @MrLarryWeisman