From Vegas-style opulence to neighbourhood boozers, 6 places to accommodate your bloodlust this weekend
Good old organised sports. How else would you be able to watch a racist and a domestic abuser knock lumps out of each other for our entertainment? Remember that scene from Game of Thrones when Bronn mans the scorpion and goes head to head with Drogon, and you don’t know who to root before because you love them both? Well this fight is kind of like that, except with the opposite dilemma of trying to decide who you’d like to see get knocked out first.
But which venue has the capacity and the atmosphere to accommodate your blood lust? Assuming you haven’t got $200,000 lying around to drop on a last-minute ticket for the T-Mobile Arena, there’s plenty of options closer to home...
Brotherhood of Pursuits and Pastimes
A unique take on the concept of a sports bar, Brotherhood combines the appeal of blue-collar, East Coast dive bars with a touch of old-fashioned refinement, and then plastered the walls in huge TVs so you can watch football, boxing, Wimbledon, and even Game of Thrones in glorious high definition with drinks ranging from light beers to proper, well-made cocktails. They even make their own pies in-house, too.
54 New Briggate, Leeds LS1 6NU
Live Bar
For the closest thing to Vegas opulence, Victoria Gate Casino’s Live Bar is offering a range of packages inviting you to pay money to feel important: this starts at £20 for entry and a seat to watch the fight on their 12ft HD screen, going all the way up to £1,000 for “The Money Table”.
With just one available, the top package includes the best seats in the house directly in front of the screen, canapes, a bottle of Belvedere, Hennessy VS, or Haig Club whiskey, 15 beers or 3 bottles of Moet, and bacon sandwiches at 3am for up to 6 people.
Victoria Gate, Eastgate, Leeds LS2 7JL
Shooters
Maybe you don’t need Drake’s backstage rider to enjoy watching a scrap. Maybe you’d be just as happy watching it with a couple of cans with the lads and a hot dog to keep you going through til the twelfth round (yeah right…). If that’s the case, twenty quid will get you just that at Shooters, plus guaranteed entry and VIP seating. It also goes without saying that there are lots of tellies. Like, loads. Big ones, too
123 The Headrow, Leeds LS1 5RD
Royal Park
Royal Park hasn’t got the biggest screen in Leeds, or the widest range of craft beers, and the canapes are a pack of Scampi Fries and a knuckle sandwich if anybody catches you say “canapes”. What it does have is proper atmosphere, the finest/sweariest punditry, and access to a fruity so you can try and claw back some of your betting losses after the fight.
39 Queen's Rd, Leeds LS6 1NY
The Pit
Everybody’s got that mate who buys into the hype, shares all the SportsBible memes, and won’t shut up about Odds in the groupchat but doesn’t actually have the faintest interest in sports (hi) - their FOMO will mean they’ll insist on coming to watch the fight with you, so book The Den at The Pit and keep them distracted with foosball, beer pong, and 4-for-£10 beers while the real fans savour every second of the fight. All eight of them.
9 Merrion St, Leeds LS1 6PQ
VUE Cinema
McGregor’s rags-to-riches story over the past ten years seems like perfect fodder for a biopic in the future, and either way the fight against Mayweather goes, it’s such a career touchstone (not to mention just an absolutely ludicrous idea) that it’s sure to find its way into the film. Only fitting, then, that you can watch the real deal live at select VUE cinemas throughout the country, including the Cardigan Fields theatre on Kirkstall Road.
Cardigan Fields, Kirkstall Rd, Leeds LS4 2DG
