VERY few people on earth can boast they’ve met the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Rod Stewart and Pierce Brosnan but only one can say they got there thanks to a game of waterpolo with Tyson Fury in Tenerife - and that man is Jordan Gray.
Standing at six-foot-nine, the 32-year-old has been in the public eye in Barnsley for a number of years due to his personality - but this year he’s taken it one step further.
He began making videos for his Facebook audience as a teenager and since then he hasn’t really looked back.
He told the Chronicle: “I’ve always been the same - I just like to make people happy and have a laugh.
“I’m the kind of person who’ll do anything to make people laugh.
“I’m not shy.
“I got up to like 160,000 followers when I was around 17 or 18 years old.
“To be honest, if times had been different I could have done very well financially from that.
“There was no TikTok, no Vine or anything like that.
“But if there was I could have done something differently.”
In his younger years, Jordan was also a world champion clay pigeon shooter as well as a rugby league player for the Castleford Tigers.
But he’s perhaps most well known for his time as a doorman in the town centre - and to be honest, he’s hard to miss.
He added: “I started on the doors for Shadow Security here in Barnsley.
“I worked my way up in that very quickly.
“I did my trade for a number of years - I think I was on the doors for ten or 11 years in the end.
“I left that behind me and then joined the prison service.
“But that wasn’t for me if I’m honest.”
You won’t see Jordan on the door outside nightclubs in Barnsley these days - instead you’ll find him looking after some of the biggest stars in the world.
And it all started in a swimming pool in Tenerife.
“I looked after Tyson Fury years ago when he was at Sheffield City Hall,” he said.
“I was on holiday in Tenerife with my family and Tyson was there at the same time with his family and his bodyguard Brendan Lyons, who I work for now.
“We got talking and he said he could remember me.
“It was all inclusive so I’d had a few drinks and the hotel staff shouted that they were playing water polo.
“So it was me, Tyson, his bodyguard and loads of other lads just in the pool.
“It was the most violent game of water polo you will have ever seen in your life.
“There was the odd elbow slipping here and there.
“But at the end of the holiday I said to Brendan that if he’s ever up my end I’d be up for working.”
And shortly after he was contacted by Brendan to look after Tyson’s brother, boxer and Love Island star Tommy Fury, and the rest is history.
Jordan’s since worked shows in Saudi Arabia and even he admits his life has turned on its head.
He said: “I’ve worked the biggest boxing shows in the world.
“My life’s bizarre.
“I’m just a lad from Shafton.”
He’s worked with some of the biggest and toughest men on the planet - but there’s only one man he’s scared of.
“I don’t get nervous.
“There’s only one man I’m scared of - and that’s my father.
“Other than that I’m not bothered.
“I’m there to do a job and I’m always professional.
“I remember big Jarrell Miller coming over from America and he was telling all the media that the security wouldn’t be able to stop him if he wanted to get to Fabio Wardley.
“That got my back up and in the press conference he shoved me from behind when I was in the middle of them.
“I turned around, elbowed him in the face by accident, knocked his glasses off and then ended up having a wrestle with him.
“It’s crazy.”
He’s looked after some of the biggest stars in the world - but who stands out?
Jordan said: “I’ve looked after so many.
“Rod Stewart was quite recent, Jason Statham, Emma Bunton, Pierce Brosnan and in Saudia Arabia I was put with Cristiano Ronaldo for a bit.
“He’s one of the biggest sportsmen in the world but for me the one that stands out is Jean-Claude Van Damme.
“I worked on Wellington Street growing up and now I’m just texting celebrities.
“I’m working alongside people who are buying yachts on Apple Pay - it’s absolutely crazy.”
And closer to home, Jordan has recently started a podcast with fellow Barnsley lad and former Rate My Takeaway star Danny Malin.
He said: “We’ve got so much planned after Christmas, it’s not just going to be a normal podcast.
“We’re going on the road and planning to do some things that haven’t been tried before.
“He doesn’t know it yet but we are.”
