LAS VEGAS?Leonardo DiCaprio. Mark Wahlberg. Ronda Rousey. Sylvester Stallone. Denzel Washington. Think of every big name in boxing or Hollywood and he or she is likely to show up at MGM Grand?s Garden Arena when Manny Pacquiao tries to pin a first loss on Floyd Mayweather Jr. on their highly-anticipated showdown on Saturday.
Bob Arum is sure of that. The only thing is unsure of is if he can name everyone on the list that he saw.
?I?m gonna f**k up because I?ll leave off people,? Arum told journalists Wednesday after the final press conference for the fight that will unify the welterweight titles. ?You cannot believe the VIPs that are coming. I wish we had someone to tell you all of them. I wish we had the list. I was having lunch and they were blowing my mind with the names.?
?Everybody is coming.?
Everybody may sound like a stretch, but Arum went even further when pressed for details.
?There?ll be as many celebrities from Hollywood who will watch the fight as there are in the Academy Awards,? Arum said.
And there may be basis. After all, HBO and Showtime have purchased tickets worth millions of dollars and some of these will be comped to celebrities associated with the giant networks.
?HBO bought from us about $3 million worth of tickets and they?re using some of those tickets to bring in celebrities,? Arum revealed. ?And Showtime is doing the same thing with their own celebrities.?
And that?s not counting the celebrities who will be given tickets by the camps of the two fighters and those who will buy their own tickets to watch the fight, which many have declared the most important bout in decades.
?The celebrities love boxing because they love to be seen,? Arum said. ?And nowhere could you be seen better than in a boxing match.?
Other celebrities associated with either boxer include Jeremy Renner, Kevin Hart, Robert Duvall, Justin Bieber, 50Cent and Michelle Rodriguez. Most of these stars could be counted on to show up on fight night.
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And that?s not all.
?There will be companies bringing in celebrities in groups of 20,? Arum promised. ?So you will be seeing 20 people sitting together like the `who?s who? of Hollywood.?
