These fans had best seats in house for Mayweather’s win against Pacquiao

By Ray Brewer (contact)

Sunday, May 3, 2015 | 2 a.m.

They call this the nosebleed section.

There is no direct route to find Section 218, Row L inside the MGM Grand Garden Arena. You climb enough stairs to work up a sweat and feel tightness in your calves, then gingerly step over a few chairs to continue the ascent to the highest part of the arena.

Finally, five rows from the top, where rows get smaller in seat count to squeeze more fans into the 16,500-seat configuration, San Antonio residents Mickey Barba III and his son Mickey IV found their place Saturday for boxing’s fight of the century.

They paid $3,700 from a ticket scalper for the pair of tickets, which was $700 more than the face value of $1,500 apiece, but well worth the investment, they say.

Bob Uecker jokingly called this area the front row in his beer commercials. The Barba men happily agree. They had the best seats in the house to watch Mayweather remain undefeated with a unanimous decision victory against Manny Pacquiao because those seats were together — father and son continuing a family pastime at the fights.

“It’s a better seat than outside. At least we got in,” said Mickey IV, 26, whose family calls him Baby Mickey.

The fight was arguably the most anticipated in boxing history thanks to a five-year wait to arrange the match, and because the promotion machine was executed brilliantly to pique our interest. Everyone wanted to attend the fight, or watch it, or find out who won.

Getting a ticket was a battle. They didn’t go on sale until two weeks before fight night, and when they did, the few hundred made available were sold within minutes.

Broker StubHub sold a ticket in a similar section to the Barbas' on Thursday for $2,959. The average price for sold tickets on Friday was $6,200, and one big spender forked over $40,000 for a floor seat.

But those prices swiftly plummeted closer to the fight, opening the door for the Average Joe such as Mickey III to take his son to the fights. He was willing to spend $5,000 for the pair.

Mickey III spends his Friday nights working as a high school football referee making $110 a game. In the winters, he’s whistling fouls during varsity basketball games for $60 a game. On Saturday, he gladly dipped into the savings from his second job.

Other seats cost more, hundreds and thousands more, and were closer to Jordan, Affleck, Trump and other celebrities we tried to take selfies with. We’ll wake up tomorrow talking about whom we spotted, where we partied afterward and whether Pacquiao deserves a rematch.

The Barba men are included in that group. The memories of tonight, even in those seats so far up some would suspect they couldn’t see, go deeper than being part of a historic fight night.

They were here for the last great Vegas fight, when in 2007 Mayweather beat Oscar De La Hoya in the changing of the guard as the sport’s pound-for-pound best fighter. They paid $800 apiece that night for three tickets to also watch from the nosebleed section. The face value was also $1,500 in 2007, meaning they got a deal. It also shows how the hype machine made this a can’t-miss event.

Three Barba men were at the MGM that night — Mickey III’s dad, Mickey Sr., was the family’s biggest fight fan. Mickey Sr. died a few years ago, when Pacquiao and Mayweather were failing to give fans the one night we so desperately wanted.

The fight the world wanted to see has finally come and gone. It didn’t live up to the expectations of the fight of the century because those lofty hopes of a back-and-forth affair were unrealistic.

But the fight gave us, from fight fans such as the Barbas to Michael Jordan and other celebrities, a great night of entertainment.

Some just had a longer commute once inside the arena to watch.

“You don’t know how much it means to me being here,” Mickey III said.

Ray Brewer can be reached at 702-990-2662 or [email protected]. Follow Ray on Twitter at twitter.com/raybrewer21