Return of the Mac!
» Las Vegas Irish pubs to cash in on Mcgregor » UFC hero will pocket up to €80m in comeback
CONOR Mcgregor is set to strike it rich once again following his fight with Donald Cerrone as Las Vegas was set to throw one of the biggest parties of the year after the bout.
The Notorious, 31, claimed prior to the UFC 246 main event he would pocket around €80million from it, with €4million coming from the biggest fight purse of his career.
Fight fans from around the world descended on Sin City in the days leading up to the fight and although the Irish contingent was well down on previous Mcgregor bouts, there was still plenty of green, white and orange to be spotted on the famous strip.
Bars and clubs were gearing up for an extremely busy night, with the Ri Ra Irish pub in the Mandalay Bay Hotel ordering in 50 extra kegs to deal with demand.
The pub’s general manager Scott Sherman said he was expecting it to reach its 900-person capacity hours before the showdown.
He told the Irish Sunday Mirror: “We have upped our keg order by about 50 kegs and I’m expecting the Irish so I’ve upped the Jack Daniels, the vodka, the ciders and the Coronas.”
MAYHEM
Mcgregor’s Proper 12 Whiskey was also expected to be high in demand and the pub made sure they had plenty to go around.
Mr Sherman added: “When the fights come up, all of a sudden it [sales of Proper 12] spikes so I’ve got 36 bottles ready to go.”
So what sort of scenes were going to greet people in the pub for the fight?
Mr Sherman told us: “If they come into an Irish pub they can expect pretty much mayhem.
“You’re going to get some opposite people that want to obviously favour Cowboy so there’s good banter in the pub.
“It’s just a typical mad Irish pub on Mcgregor [ fights].
“Usually, Vegas itself when he’s in town, the city does flux with a lot of Irish and a lot of Irish that live in the States will come out just for the craic.
“They might not be able to buy the tickets but like J1s [visas] will fly in to be in the atmosphere.”
Looking back on previous bouts involving the former two-weight champion, Mr Sherman recalled having to do an emergency booze run on the day of Mcgregor’s featherweight title win over Jose Aldo. He explained: “The best one we’ve ever had as far as having a tonne of Irish in the pub was the one he had in December about four years ago.
“That was fantastic because what ended up happening was everyone
A lot of Irish that live in the States will come out for the craic when he is in town
SCOTT SHERMAN BAR OWNER IN LAS
VEGAS
bought all the Irish gifts over here to go watch the fight so they done the 12 pubs of Christmas but when they found us they never left.
“And that one I had to go out the day of the fight to do an emergency pick-up of another 70 kegs and 50 cases of Bud Light and Corona and I ran out again.”
Mcgregor was also planning a post-fight celebration, with tables costing up to €67,000. Gambling is obviously a huge part of Vegas culture and a seven-figure sum was expected to be wagered on Mcgregor versus Cerrone across the city. John Lukasik, director at betting shop The Book at The LINQ Hotel + Experience, admitted there wasn’t as much interest in this bout as previous
Mcgregor bouts – but was still expecting to take some big bets in the hours before it started.
He said: “It’s not as much as the Khabib [ fight] and it’s definitely not as much as the Mayweather.
“I don’t know if anything is ever going to top that.”
On business in general surrounding the fight, he added: “You definitely see an uplift in it. It’s really nice to have that. It’s definitely noticeable. Again you can’t compare anything to that Mayweather fight but these are big.
“It’s easily going to be a seven-figure fight around the city of Las Vegas for something like this.
BETTING
“There’ll probably be less betting [than the Khabib fight] but then again you talk to a lot of combat sports fans and there’s a lot of people that think
Khabib is the greatest pound for pound fighter of all-time. I would say there’s probably going to be a little bit less money gambled this time around.
“We’re probably going to get a lot of larger bets on Mcgregor because he’s -330 [Vegas odds] so you got to bet 33 bucks to win 10. I could see a lot of bigger bets coming in on him.”