Celebrities stream into MGM Grand Garden Arena for Mayweather-Pacquiao

By John Katsilometes

Published Saturday, May 2, 2015 | 1:19 p.m.

Updated Saturday, May 2, 2015 | 11:42 p.m.

Similar to the exorbitant amount of money flying around the Floyd Mayweather Jr.-Manny Pacquiao fight was the high level of celebrity represented at MGM Grand Garden Arena.

Is there a level beyond A-plus? We’re in it in this big green showroom.

Example: Just moments ago, I brushed past Evander Holyfield to meet almost face-to-face with Mark Wahlberg. Down the line of those cutting through the crowd was Magic Johnson, then Charles Barkley, then Michael Jordan. Robert De Niro is here; so is Pat Sajak (who seems like a decent sort, I must say).

George Clooney is around here, someplace, or so they say. Justin Bieber is in Mayweather’s camp once more, and Denzel Washington touched off some real excitement when he walked into the venue. Jamie Foxx is to sing the national anthem, or at least that of the United States. He’s to portray Mike Tyson in an upcoming biopic; I have not seen Iron Mike in the venue just yet.

Who else? Liev Schreiber is here and he likes Pacquiao, as do most of those in the building who care to voice an opinion (Magic joined such luminaries as Tommy “Hitman” Hearns as saying something akin to, “It’s going to be great!”).

The night was expected to be a serious celeb draw, and it was. Over the course of the night, there were sightings reported of Jimmy Kimmel, Clint Eastwood, Jay-Z, Beyonce, Sean Combs, Ben Affleck, Christian Bale, Michael Keaton, Bradley Cooper, Michael J. Fox, Don Cheadle, Joe and Nick Jonas, Sting, Jon Voight, Nicki Minaj, Mary J. Blige, Les Moonves, Julie Chen, Louis C.K., Nicole Scherzinger, Claire Danes, Donald Trump, Stephen Moyer, Anna Paquin, Calvin Harris, Robert Craft, Dax Shepherd, Michael Strahan, Tobey Maguire, Gayle King, French Montana, Chris Brown, Joshua Jackson, Diane Kruger, Sugar Ray Leonard, Amanda Peet, Dana White, Kevin Connolly, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Matt Bomer, Jake Gyllenhaal (whose upcoming movie "Southpaw" was an event sponsor), Antoine Fuqua, Reggie Miller, Jesse Jackson, Paris Hilton, Drew Barrymore, Tom Brady and Andre Agassi in MGM Grand.

Oh, yeah. And Tyson. A man who knows all about boxing spectacles, he was here, too

* * *

Top Rank Boxing President Todd duBoef is the sort who enjoys a major fight only after the major fight is over.

“Right now I’m mostly thinking about operations, making sure all the satellite links are working and everything is running right,” duBoef told me a during a break in his night as the fight at MGM Grand Garden Arena crept closer. “I kind of go through the same jitters and anxieties for every fight. I try not to concentrate on the fight and more on the technical parts of the night. I call it a pleasant distraction from thinking about who is going to win the fight.”

DuBoef then laughed and said, “I’ll probably pace around this building 400 times like a dog looking for a place to go to the bathroom.”

The long-coveted spectacle is expected to draw more than $400 million for the two fighters’ camps, including a record $72 million live gate and 4 million pay-per-view buys at $100 apiece. The numbers have certainly exceeded even the most far-flung estimates when the contracts were signed.

“When you do a projection on a fight, you come up with conservative numbers about where it’s going to be and what it’s going to be,” deBoef said. “But this thing just took off. It totally took off.”

DeBoef says he knows why.

“I really believe that the social media behind this fight really changed everything. It’s so much bigger than it would have been five years ago or even three years ago,” DeBoef said. “I really think it made it that much bigger. Manny is a world, global figure, there are 100 million Filipinos and 10 million expatriates, and that certainly adds to it, but the instantaneous response to what is happening with a fight like this has made it that much more tangible. People are really part of the event on social media.”

The term deBoef uses is not solely the Fight of the Century.

“I would say it’s the Biggest New Fight of All Time,” he said. “It’s a new genre. It’s a new-media fight. That’s really what it is.”

* * *

There are a number of ways to scan Section 218 at MGM Grand Garden Arena. There is the arena seating chart, displayed on such ticketing websites as StubHub.com. There is the arena vantage point, where you look way up or over and notice how high the last row of that section really is.

And, of course, you can get to know Section 218 by sitting there.

That’s how Michael Murphy and Diane McInerney of Dedham, Mass. (a town just outside Boston), are enjoying the view of tonight’s “Fight of the Century” at MGM Grand Garden Arena.

The couple spent $10,500 on a pair of nosebleeds near the top of the Grand Garden. They purchased tickets last Sunday on eBay. The $5,250-per-ticket cost is less than the upwards of $7,500 the tickets cost on secondary ticket broker websites (including StubHub) and the $2,500 those seats cost tonight as the fight approached. Face value, the tickets were $1,500 — but only 500 or so tickets were made available to the public for the fight.

Leading up to tonight’s main event, following ticket availability and pricing was becoming something of an online parlor game, as the prices for ringside seats, once set at $150,000, fell to $30,000 about two hours before the first bell.

The highest sections were available for $2,000 at one point, and it was expected they might dip to face value or even lower as the main event drew close.

For Michael and Diane, a married couple with 2-year-old twins waiting back home, the Fight of the Century was their second trip to LAs Vegas. They visited in May 2011 for the Pacquiao-Shane Mosley bout at MGM Grand (Pacquiao dominated that fight, and the couple like him to beat Mayweather, too). That night, Michael and Diane sat in Section 22, far closer to the ring, and paid $1,500 per ticket. Their outlay for the weekend has risen to more than $15,000 if you factor in a four-night stay at MGM Grand and round-trip flights from Boston to Las Vegas.

“This was our time to splurge,” Michael said.

The couple were due, for sure, as they have not taken a trip since the twins were born. Michael is an anesthesiologist and Diane a nurse taking time away from her career to watch the kids. She’s also from a boxing family, as her brother once fought in the amateurs and pros as a cruiserweight. When she talks of watching fights, she jabs and feints, just like a boxer.

“I love it,” she said. “We’re at the Fight of the Century. I know we’ve got 85 years left in the century, but so far this is the Fight of the Century.”

* * *

Earlier today, Jay Rood took a look at the wagers on a draw in tonight’s fight that had poured into MGM Resorts sports books. As he reviewed those numbers, he thought, “I’d better cover myself here.”

The draw proposition has been “bet down,” as they say, from an opening of 22-to-1 to 5-to-1 today. This means that bettors attempting to achieve value for their wagers see an opening for a relatively rare outcome. The reasoning: Mayweather and Pacquiao are evenly matched and are likely to fight to a close decision. A narrow decision on two cards for either fighter and an even scorecard from the third judge would indeed be a draw.

“We don’t want a draw,” says Rood, who is the head of all sports book operations in MGM Resorts International, including MGM Grand. This morning, Rood dialed up a new prop: A “No Draw” bet, at minus-1,200. You’d need to lay $1,200 to make $100, and it is a comparatively safe bet in any fight — even one where the draw has been bet to fairly narrow odds.

“We’ve had some action already,” Rood said today at around noon. “We’ve had a couple of bets to make $500. What I’m trying to do is cover myself on the back door in case there is a draw, which would not be good for us at all.”

The total take on the fight from Nevada sports books should approach $80 million. By comparison, the Super Bowl drew a total of $117 million statewide this year and $120 million in 2014. It’s easily the largest betting take for a prizefight in history, and the weekend should approach $100 million with action on the Kentucky Derby and the NBA and NHL playoffs.

Rood connected the Derby and tonight’s fight with the horse ItsAKnockout, posting a prop bet paying 100-to-1 if that horse won and the race and the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight ended in a draw. “It’s already down to 60-to-1,” Rood said, duly impressed at his ingenuity.

The best outcome for tonight’s fight? That’s easy, and commonplace: “Mayweather decision,” said Rood, who does make the occasional wager but is not betting on tonight’s fight, saying, “I have enough action as it is.”

Follow John Katsilometes on Twitter at Twitter.com/JohnnyKats. Also, follow “Kats With the Dish” at Twitter.com/KatsWiththeDish.