Knockout night with VIPs for boxing fan

Simon, 38, from Burley in Leeds, travelled to Hamburg to cheer on Haye in his heavyweight title bout against Wladimir Klitschko.

He had paid £140 for a seat about 35 yards away from the action but ended up watching Klitschko’s victory at ringside.

Simon talked his way into the VIP area by telling bouncers at the rain-lashed stadium that he was with Sky TV.

He then pressed the flesh with boxing greats George Foreman and Roy Jones Jr and tennis hero Boris Becker.

But the window firm manager’s lucky break didn’t end there – he also made it backstage before the fight, again using his “I’m with Sky TV” line.

He found himself standing alongside Klitschko’s boxer brother Vitali during a TV interview.

And he even got as far as the door to Haye’s dressing room, where he came face-to-face with the British boxer and wished him good luck.

Married dad-of-two Simon said: “It was an amazing night, once in a lifetime stuff. I’ve never done anything like this before – it just came all together and I rolled with it.

“When I got to the stadium it was throwing it down and I looked at the covered ringside seats and thought ‘I fancy some of that’.

“After I made it past the bouncers it went from there – I suppose I had a bit of Dutch courage.”

The boxing fan added: “I knew it was going well when I started getting text messages from home asking what I was doing next to Vitali Klitschko on TV!”

He said Haye’s defeat failed to take the shine off his special evening among the VIP visitors from the world of sport.

“It was a shame he lost. But I’d be silly to sit here and moan about the result after the night I had.”