He and business partner Dean Lonergan, the creators of the Brisbane Global Tens and Auckland Nines, had a man standing at the entrance to the Verdanza Hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico, charged with lodging their bid to host the WBO heavyweight title fight between their boxer, Joseph Parker, and American Hughie Fury.

Higgins' man - let's be honest, a 24-year-old sweating bullets - clutched a sealed envelope. In the envelope was a piece of company letterhead, quoting a figure of $US3,000,011, plus an accompanying cheque for $US300,000, or 10 per cent of their bid to host the high-profile fight.

Fury's people also had a man there clutching an envelope. The catch? Neither had an idea of the value of the other's bid, but the winner would take all. The location and time of the bout, the proceeds of any broadcast deal, not to mention 60 per cent of the winning bid.

Higgins had no idea what his rival promoter, Frank Warren, was pitching. But the meticulous Aucklander had done his homework. He settled on $2.5 million but upped it to $3 million when a hunch told him Warren would have him pegged and counter-bid at $2.8 million.

Higgins and Lonergan were right. Warren's bid was $2.8 million, and the Duco team, from New Zealand, won the purse by just $200,000.

"It was a memorable experience," Higgins said. "My 24-year-old said it was the most stressful experience of his life."

Welcome to the adrenalin-charged world of an events promoter, where fortunes can be made or lost on the strength of a hunch, the contents of a sealed envelope and your capacity to spruik a dream.

Higgins, 37, has been living this life for the past 13 years. Stories, he has a few. That time he sued Gordon Ramsay for a cool $2.1 million after the megastar chef was a no-show at a series of charity events in Auckland and Wellington. The parties settled out of court after an enlightening period of discovery.

His visits in Beverly Hills with legendary American boxing impresario Bob Arum, earning his trust - and his business - and learning the rules of the boxing game. The hunch that flopped, when Higgins mis-timed a speaking tour for a big-name star and almost lost it all. That idea he had almost a decade ago to pitch a short-format rugby league tournament to the NRL. Or the current jewel in the Duco crown, a mooted fight between 11-time welterweight world champion Manny Pacquiao and Brisbane school teacher Jeff Horn. If he and Lonergan can pull this one off - Pacquiao's camp recently demanded a $2 million purse hike - they will be responsible for what most critics agree would be the biggest fight ever held on Australian soil.

"I always had a funny feeling," he starts. "Well, put it this way, I was always ambitious. I wasn't going to die wondering, I always knew that."

He and Lonergan's latest venture kicks off in Brisbane on Saturday in searing heat. It's the Brisbane Global Tens, a rare experiment in the commercially conservative sport of rugby, and the first time in the game's professional history that anyone has managed to bring together in competition a top European and Super Rugby club.

It hasn't been an easy sell. From its inception three years ago the Duco team, who brought on former Australian pole vaulter Rachael Carroll to run their business on this side of the Tasman, have pushed the proverbial up hill to get the Tens over the line. Though no one will say it publicly, neither Australian nor New Zealand rugby powerbrokers extended a hand in help. That a ball will be kicked on Suncorp Stadium under the Global Tens banner at all is a credit to the Duco team's commercial savvy and their astonishing capacity to court tourism boards in major cities and inspire them to generosity.

Flashing some cash helps too, no more so than in rugby. Teams were paid six-figure sums to sign up. In one amusing case where that wasn't enough, an audience was promised with the Australian women's beach volleyball squad.

But even with contracts signed, the teething problems persisted. The New Zealand players' union ensured the competition would not be boosted by top-line All Blacks, the NSW Waratahs have held back their best - with the exception of Tens ambassador Israel Folau - dissent came from within when another ambassador, Toulon's Drew Mitchell, questioned the concept's viability and now a heat wave threatens crowd forecasts in the high-20,000s.

Higgins is undaunted, which is not surprising considering the peaks and troughs he experiences on the boxing side of the business. Rugby politics is not for the faint-hearted, but nor is it stuffing your hopes and a decent chunk of your cash into a sealed envelope bound for a Caribbean island. ???

"You get used to [the risk]," he says, pointing to the potential upside of the Parker fight in April.

"If he beats Hughie Fury he could well fight the winner of the [Anthony Joshua vs Wladimir Klitschko] at Wembley, which has sold out. [Klitschko or Joshua] would have one belt, Joe has the other, a unification bout would sell out Wembley again.

"You go from fighting in New Zealand to suddenly being televised globally ... selling out a stadium and an event that would generate somewhere close to $100 million. Or not. If Joe loses the fight you're kicked out of the rankings, your fans think you're a mug, you're back to small shows, it's hard financially and you take a couple of years to climb back to the shot. There isn't another business quite like that."