Las Vegas airport flooded with private jets prior to the Mayweather vs McGregor fight. Photo / Twitter, Cecile Teapot
Las Vegas airport flooded with private jets prior to the Mayweather vs McGregor fight. Photo / Twitter, Cecile Teapot
Today's fight between Conor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather might not have been a sell-out but that doesn't mean there wasn't some serious star power on hand ringside.
A-listers descended upon the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas in droves, said news.com.au.
Cleveland Cavaliers small forward LeBron James was spottedringside, as well as former boxing heavyweight champion, Mike Tyson.
LeBron James waits for a super welterweight boxing match between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Conor McGregor. Former boxer Mike Tyson sits behind James. Photo / AP
It wasn't just fellow sport stars who were there to watch the highly-anticipated fight. Music legend Ozzy Osborne was spotted with his wife, Sharon Osbourne, and son, Jack Osbourne.
American pop princess Demi Lovato was also spotted arriving in a plunging white dress to witness the history-making stoush, as well as Academy Award winner Charlize Theron, who was seen smiling in the crowd.
Singer Demi Lovato performs the national anthem prior to the super welterweight boxing match between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Conor McGregor. Photo / Getty Images
Earlier, an amazingly similar snap of Las Vegas Airport to one which went viral when Mayweather fought Manny Pacquiao two years ago shows just how many celebrities were in town.
Actress Charlize Theron attends the super welterweight boxing match between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Conor McGregor. Photo / Getty Images
There were so many private jets trying to land at McCarran Airport flights were diverted to another strip in north Las Vegas, per reporter Liz Habib.
Airport officials were bracing for an onslaught of air traffic ahead of what was billed as the biggest fight in history. According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, nearly 1000 private jets overloaded the airport on the day of the Pacquiao flight, forcing officials to convert a taxiway into a makeshift parking lot and to divert another 362 planes to two other local airports.
"We're trying to be better prepared and improve the guest experience," airport spokeswoman Christine Crews told the Review-Journal. "While this action appears to be favouring our wealthiest customers, this is really to the benefit of everyone using the airport." Australian actor Chris Hemsworth was among those "wealthiest customers", judging by an Instagram photo of him en route to the fight. So were celebrity power couple Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez.
In keeping with the up-market clientele expected to attend the bout, the arena was still basically empty two hours after the first fights began.
Around 1700 tickets were reportedly still available for a fight being held inside the 20,000-seat T-Mobile Arena.
Despite the lack of a sell-out, T-Mobile Arena general manager Dan Quinn believed the fight could still break the $72 million gate record set by the Pacquiao-Mayweather fight in 2015.
UFC president Dana White said the gate was around $70 million on the eve of the fight, so it's close.
"It certainly has a chance," Quinn told MMAFighting.com. "If Dana said we're right at $70 million, we're right on the cusp of it. So if we're able to generate any kind of walk up - certainly there's a ton of buzz in the city, we saw that (Friday) in the area for the weigh-in - if we're that close, I would think that we would do enough walkup business to potentially eclipse that number."
Floyd Mayweather Jr. enters the ring for his super welterweight boxing match against Conor McGregor. Photo / Getty Images
