Tuesday, February 18, 2025

Mullingar J1 Student Blags his way into McGregor VIP section

By Claire Corrigan

It has been a very eventful weekend for Mullingar DCU student Daniel Forde who is currently working in the Hamptons, New York on a J1 Visa.
Not only did he manage to secure $80,000 seats for the biggest fight of the year, but he, along with his friends Seán Hehir and Brian Grace, managed to blag his way into the VIP area where he partied with Conor McGregor himself all night.
One of Daniel’s friends who was without a ticket, went a step further and actually made his entrance to the McGregor Vs Mayweather fight using a ladder.
Daniel had originally bought tickets worth $500 tickets (although he was forced to pay $2400 due to the huge interest in the fight). “When we got in, we realised we were one seat away from the back row. We’d have needed a telescope to see it.”
Fearing the worst, the shrewd 19-year-old had searched online to find out if he could upgrade his seat once inside and discovered his best bet was to arrive super early. “We got in before any fight started and went down the elevators to scope the place out.”
It wasn’t long before the lads realised there was a very light security presence and they quickly realised they could use this to their advantage. “There was one security person per section and actually a lot of them were only volunteers checking tickets.”
When asked how they managed to evade the security in the VIP area, Daniel said it was a case of try, try again. “They checked our tickets and told us that we couldn’t come, so we asked if we could go down and just have a look around, but they came down after us to bring us back.”
However, on the boys’ fifth attempt, they got lucky and managed to blag seats that would have otherwise cost $80,000. “It was the VIP section and there was a lounge at the entrance.
“We walked straight in and the security guard had his back turned. We knew we were a bit out of place, so we started to chatting to anyone we could to make it look like we belonged there; people with Irish flags. We were just talking to everyone and acting as if we belonged there,” he laughed.
Daniel said the lads spotted a number of celebrities and unbeknownst to them, among their new friends was a TV star. “The 14-year- old, who was with them, was a Disney star. He followed me on Twitter and I saw that he has 1.7 million followers. We also saw Paddy Houlihan and Brendan Schaub.”
After the fight, the lads hopped the fence and made their way down to the ring, meeting a number of celebrities backstage. “We got kicked out and walked out through VIP Sectionwhere there was a limo service waiting outside, who thought we were VIPs. One of my friends saw a name on the list and we said that’s who we were.”
They students were then ushered towards a limo and brought to an after party where they also ended up skipping the queue by jumping yet another fence. “Conor arrived 20 minutes after and was up on the DJ stand, so we made our way to the front of the dance- floor. We hopped a fence to get into the nightclub but we couldn’t get to the invitation only section where Conor was.”
After 90 minutes, Daniel’s friend Sean made a mad dash for the VIP section before security could stop him. “He came back after chatting to someone inside and they let us in and we met Robbie Keane and Jimi Manuwa, Floyd Mayweather Sr, Gerard Butler and Wesley Snipes, as well as world-renowned pro boxer Mikey Garcia.”
Daniel has his own theory regarding how the boys managed to get away with chancing their arm so many times.
“I think the reason they are so lax is because Irish people are a lot more cheeky, when it comes to taking risks, than Americans.”
When asked if the lads had recovered from their wild night out, the student, who will return to New York this Wednesday, replied, “Just about. Getting there.”

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