Tag Archives: tickets

Tickets Now On Sale For Ruiz-Joshua 2

Posted on 10/14/2019

By: Sean Crose

Boxing fans looking to visit the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia now have a chance to satisfy both the inner fan and the inner tourist, for Matchroom Boxing announced on Sunday that tickets for the Andy Ruiz-Anthony Joshua rematch are now on sale. The first bout between the two heavyweights, which went down at New York’s Madison Square Garden last June, was one of the sport’s biggest upsets in years, as Ruiz stopped legitimate star and titlist Joshua in the Englishman’s US debut. Rather than fight in Great Britain (Joshua territory) or the United States (Ruiz territory), the two will meet for a second time in the most neutral of locations.

“On December 7,” Matchroom stated in a press release, “in the UNESCO heritage site of Diriyah – known as the land of kings and heroes – Anthony ‘AJ’ Joshua will attempt to recapture belts taken from him by Andy ‘Destroyer’ Ruiz Jr in Diriyah Arena, a purpose-built arena for 15,000 fans on the night.” Matchroom also claimed that “travelers from 49 countries across the world can now secure 90 day tourist visas online in just seven minutes.” Joshua promoter, and Matchroom honcho, Eddie Hearn made sure to present himself in full salesman mode for the occasion:

“We already know there is a great passion for boxing in the Kingdom,” he stated, “but AJ and Andy will want their fans to come and support them, from across the region and from the UK and the US and Mexico.” Hearn also compared the fight and its surprising locality to famed battles of lore. “Due to the unique venue,” he said, “being staged outside of the UK or the US, the fight has already seen parallels drawn in the media to some of the most iconic fights in history, such as Muhammad Ali’s fights against George Foreman – ‘the Rumble in the Jungle’ – and Joe Frazier – the ‘Thrilla in Manila’”.

Clearly the Diriyah location is being used as a huge selling point and attention getter for the bout, which is being promoted as The Clash on the Dunes.“We have already seen the energy created by boxing when we staged the World Boxing Super Series match last year,” claimed Prince Abdulaziz Bin Turki Al Faisal Al Saud, who is the Chairman of Saudi Arabia’s General Sports Authority. “This landmark moment – the first World Heavyweight Title fight in the Middle East – now takes that excitement to a whole new level.” He further stated that: “Athletes and audiences can expect to be knocked out by the passionate reception this event will enjoy in the Kingdom, and now, with the launch of tourism visas for 49 countries, it has never been easier for fans from around the world to come be part of history.”

The excitement was shared by Saudi Center for Energy Efficiency Chairman HH Prince Khaled bin Abdulaziz Al Saud. “This is a historic moment for Saudi Arabia,” he said, “welcoming the first World Heavyweight Championship. As a nation we have started to pave the way for becoming a global player in the sports and entertainment industry and we have witnessed a real appetite for the boxing sport.” He added that “This is the biggest boxing fight that has taken place in the region to date and we are bringing it to Saudi Arabia on December 7 – the world is watching us and we promise to deliver an unparalleled experience. SCEE are a proud partner of the GSA bringing Clash on the Dunes to Diriyah Season, 2019.”

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Showtime Offers Heavyweight Fight Between Deontay Wilder vs. Tyson Fury Directly to Consumers Over the Internet Via Showtime, More Tickets Released

Posted on 11/20/2018

For the first time, Showtime Networks Inc. is offering viewers the opportunity to purchase the blockbuster WBC Heavyweight World Championship Deontay Wilder vs. Tyson Fury on SHOWTIME PPV directly through the SHOWTIME app. Subscribers and non-subscribers will be able to purchase and live stream as WBC World Champion Wilder defends his title against lineal champion Fury via the SHOWTIME app on Apple mobile and AppleTV (4th Generation) devices, Amazon Fire TV devices, Android phones and tablets and directly on Showtime.com for $74.99 or through cable, DBS, telco and streaming providers nationwide. The showdown of undefeated heavyweights will air on Saturday, December 1 live at 9 p.m. ET / 6 p.m. PT from STAPLES Center in Los Angeles. For more information on where the fight is available and pricing per distributor, visit: SHO.com.

The bout is currently available for purchase on Showtime.com and will roll out on select platforms via the SHOWTIME app during fight week. Customers who purchase the PPV event through the SHOWTIME app and have never subscribed to the SHOWTIME streaming service will receive a 30-day free trial offer. Viewers can purchase the fight through a number of distributors including ATT U-Verse, Comcast, Cox, DirecTV, Dish, Frontier, Optimum, PlayStation Store, Spectrum, Verizon Fios and more. The Wilder vs. Fury fight will also be available through Fathom Events in movie theaters and at select bars and restaurants nationwide. Showtime Networks will continue to roll out PPV capabilities on additional streaming devices in time for the highly-anticipated SHOWTIME PPV event of Senator Manny Pacquiao vs. Adrien Broner on January 19.

Wilder vs. Fury tests the raw power of Wilder against the unmatched size and mobility of Fury. America’s only heavyweight champion since 2007, Wilder has 39 knockouts in 40 professional fights, including knockouts in all seven of his title defenses. Fury is a former IBF, WBA and WBO heavyweight world champion who is undefeated in 27 professional fights and holds boxing’s coveted lineal heavyweight title.

More Tickets Released at Staples Center

Overwhelming demand has led to more tickets being released for sale to the public at STAPLES Center for the highly-anticipated heavyweight world championship clash presented by Premier Boxing Champions Saturday, December 1 between WBC champion Deontay Wilder and lineal champion Tyson Fury on SHOWTIME PPV® from Los Angeles.

The newly released tickets are priced at $125 and $75 and are on sale now. All tickets for the event, which is promoted by BombZquad Enterprises and Queensberry Promotions, in association with TGB Promotions and DiBella Entertainment, are available via AXS.com. Wilder vs. Fury will be produced and distributed by SHOWTIME PPV. The suggested retail price (SRP) for the pay-per-view telecast is $64.99 for standard definition.

Wilder vs. Fury tests the raw power of the 6-foot-7 Wilder against the unmatched size and mobility of the 6-foot-9 Fury in the most significant heavyweight event in the U.S. in more than 15 years. America’s only true heavyweight champion since 2007, Wilder has 39 knockouts in 40 professional fights, including knockouts in all seven of his title defenses. Fury is a former IBF, WBA and WBO heavyweight world champion who is undefeated in 27 professional fights and holds boxing’s coveted lineal heavyweight title.

The PPV undercard features unbeaten unified super welterweight world champion Jarrett Hurd returning to take on Jason Welborn, Cuban heavyweight slugger Luis Ortiz facing-off against Travis Kauffman and rising undefeated heavyweight Joe Joyce battling Joe Hanks.

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Closed Circuit Tickets for Canelo vs. GGG2 On Sale Wednesday August 15th

Posted on 08/13/2018

Tickets for the closed circuit viewing in Las Vegas for the historic rematch between Lineal Middleweight World Champion Canelo Alvarez (49-1-2, 34 KOs) and WBC, WBA, IBO Middleweight World Champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin (38-0-1, 34 KOs) will go on sale Wednesday, Aug. 15 at 10:00 a.m. PT. Closed circuit viewing of one of the most important matchups in middleweight history will be available at MGM Grand Hotel & Casino, Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, The Mirage Hotel & Casino, and Luxor Hotel and Casino.

“We want to give fight fans every single opportunity to watch this historic rematch live in Las Vegas, and buying a closed-circuit ticket is a great way to experience this important moment in boxing. There’s nothing more electrifying than gathering with other fight fans in the boxing capitol of the world,” said Golden Boy Promotions Chairman and CEO Oscar De La Hoya.

Tickets for the closed circuit telecast of Canelo vs. GGG 2 at MGM Grand, Mandalay Bay, The Mirage and Luxor are priced at $100, not including applicable fees. Seating is general admission at MGM Grand, Mandalay Bay and The Mirage while Luxor will have assigned seats. Tickets go on sale Wednesday, Aug. 15 at 10:00 a.m. PT. Tickets may be purchased at any MGM Resorts International Box Office, by phone with a major credit card at (800) 745-3000 or online at http://www.ticketmaster.com/canelovsggg2.

Canelo vs. GGG 2 is a 12-round fight for the middleweight championship of the world presented by Golden Boy Promotions and GGG Promotions. The event is sponsored by Tecate, “THE OFFICIAL BEER OF BOXING,” Hennessy, “Never Stop, Never Settle,”O’Reilly Auto Parts, Fred Loya Insurance, Interjet, Venom, and Fathom Events. The event will take place Saturday, Sept. 15 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas and will be produced and distributed live by HBO Pay-Per-View beginning at a special time of 8:00 p.m. ET/5:00 p.m. PT.

Tickets for Canelo vs. GGG 2 are on sale now, and are priced at $5,000, $2,500, $2,000, $1,500, $800, $700, and $500 not including applicable service charges and taxes. There will be a limit of eight (8) per person at all price levels. To charge by phone with a major credit card, call 888-9-AXS-TIX (888-929-7849). Tickets will also be available for purchase at www.t-mobilearena.com or www.axs.com.

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MGM Offers Refunds on Canelo GGG Tickets Based on Uncertainty of Commission Decision

Posted on 03/29/2018

Word broke on Wednesday that MGM Resorts will be offering full refunds for tickets that have already been purchased for the May 5th Canelo Alvarez – Gennady Golovkin rematch, which is still scheduled to go down at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. “In the event a fan requested a refund, they could get one at the original point of sale and in full,” Gilbert Manzano, of the respected Las Vegas Review-Journal, quotes an MGM rep as stating. MGM’s decision is yet another ominous sign as the much anticipated Canelo-GGG fight remains effectively up in the air.

The mega bout was put on hold for all intents and purposes after the Nevada State Athletic Commission ruled last week that Canelo (49-1-2) is temporarily suspended. In early March, the Voluntary Anti-Doping Association informed team Canelo that it’s fighter had shown traces of the banned substance Clenbuterol in his system on two distinct occasions (2/17 and 2/20, respectively). Canelo has reportedly tested clean since that time, but the Commission suspended the middleweight until at least April 10th, when a hearing will be held. Canelo’s team has blamed the incident on Canelo consuming tainted meat, an assertion which has been met with considerable criticism.

While Mexican beef is known to contain Clenbuterol, the Commission may not be under any obligation to find the tainted meat excuse acceptable. And, should the Commission find team Canelo’s defense lacking, the bout with Golovkin (37-0-1) might well be cancelled, or at least pushed back for some time, as Canelo’s suspension could be extended. While there are many who believe the fight will go on as scheduled due to the Commission having a reputation (fair or not) for giving Canelo preferential treatment, and of putting money before all else, some well-known individuals in and out of the fight game aren’t so sure.

As things stand, HBO, which is broadcasting the bout, via pay per view, is currently behaving as if the fight isn’t even happening. What’s more, Golovkin’s own harsh words on the matter have put the Commission in a bit of a corner. Declaring that Canelo had previously cheated and that the Commission were essentially “terrorists,” the middleweight titlist effectively sided with those whose opinion is the Commission is corrupt and is hurting the sport of boxing. Such actions from Golovkin put pressure on the Commission to prove its fairness.

And now there’s the matter of tickets being refunded. While no one knows whether or not the May 5th match will go on as planned, the road has become far rockier than anyone could have reasonably expected it to.

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Did Robots Bid for Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao Tickets?

Posted on 04/23/2015

By Ivan G. Goldman

Selling tickets to the May 2 super-fight at the official price was like throwing currency out the window of a moving vehicle. They were worth at least five times their stated value a split second after changing hands.

But in what amounted to a public relations gimmick, the Las Vegas MGM Grand offered up about 500 of them today, according to the Associated Press count, and they were gobbled up, by some accounts, in less than 20 seconds at prices ranging from $1,500 to $7,500.

As it turned out, the toughest negotiations between the Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather camps centered on the distribution of those tickets. Not only are seats worth several fortunes, but there’s a magic to them that transcends their monetary value. Everyone wants to be seen with the celebrities who will be sprinkled around the arena, including their fellow-celebrities.

The ticket quarrel was finally settled by intermediary Les Moonves, the CBS chairman, whose intercession was also necessary to make the fight happen. With both sides finally satisfied Wednesday night, the casino was free to release some tickets.

Those trusting souls who thought they could get lucky and jump into the right place in the cyberspace line were almost certainly bidding against users of a mysterious computer science involving mathematical algorithms, whatever they are.

It’s related to the same techno-process now employed by options traders who spend millions and millions of dollars putting together programs that can purchase or sell financial derivatives in tiny slivers of milliseconds so they can take advantage of new data long before puny human brains can act.  

According to Slate, these automated actions exercised by bots can even be triggered by tweets. In the case of Mayweather-Pacquiao, bots could be trained like cyberspace spaniels to watch the MGM Grand Internet site for any twitches of movement.

Apparently most of the 16,800 seats in the arena were allocated to the two camps, and you can bet most of those are already or soon will be on the secondary market. Because after all, you can’t expect the two fight teams to be satisfied with the miserable hundreds of millions of dollars in purse totals (weighted 60-40 in Mayweather’s favor).

Just about everything you read about this ticket flap is no more than a rumor because no one on the inside talks about it on the record, and when they do they talk around it in a kind of code. It may be easier to get top secret information on the placement of nuclear missiles.
The fighters’ camps apparently suspect they might be accused of greed so they figure the less we know about details the better.

Anyway, I’ve actually inspected the worst seats in the MGM Grand Arena and whatever you do, don’t waste your money. The fighters look like mice from up there and many of the seats have no line of sight to the giant monitors. If you actually care about the fight itself, and not just the spectacle surrounding it, you’re much better off curling up with a brew and watching on a nice high-def screen for a miserable $100.

New York Times best-selling author Ivan G. Goldman’s Sick Justice: Inside the American Gulag was released in 2013 by Potomac Books. Watch for The Debtor Class: A Novel from Permanent Press in spring, 2015. More information here.

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