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Published: Sunday, September 30, 2007

Pavlik credits Valley support for victory

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Early reaction from the deposed
champion indicated there will be a rematch.

By JOE SCALZO

VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — Over the past seven years, Kelly Pavlik has emerged as one of the best middleweights in boxing.

On Saturday night, he emerged as the best.

Using a flurry of punches in the middle of the seventh round, Pavlik backed up WBC middleweight champion Jermain Taylor in the corner and blasted him to the ground. With 2:14 left in the round, referee Steve Smoger halted the fight, making the South Sider the new WBC and WBO champion around midnight at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City.

"I'm out of words," said Pavlik (32-0, 29 KOs), holding two belts. "It's huge.

"Are we going to Disneyland now?"

Taylor (27-1-1) knocked Pavlik down in the second round with a flurry of punches, just the second time in Pavlik's career he's been knocked down.

"He hurt me," Pavlik admitted. "But I wasn't out. I knew what was around me. I was still shaky, but when I heard the 10-second bell, I knew I was OK."

Pavlik re-established himself over the next few rounds. Pavlik thought he'd drop him in the fifth or sixth, but Taylor's championship experience kept him in it.

"I tip my hat to him — he came to fight," Pavlik said. "He's a helluva fighter, and he's very fast, but he's not as fast as my sparring partners. They deserve credit for getting me ready."

Huge Youngstown contingent

Pavlik's victory set off an explosion in the pro-Pavlik crowd, which chanted "Kelly! Kelly!" throughout the fight. At least 5,000 fans came from Youngstown to watch the fight.

Pavlik said that support helped carry him through.

"It was heart, and it was the fans," said Pavlik, when asked how he stayed up after the second round knockdown. "The fans had a lot to do with it."

The fighters' contract calls for an automatic rematch unless Taylor's camp buys out Pavlik. That doesn't seem likely. Taylor, who had never hit the canvas in a fight before, said he wanted the rematch.

"I can't believe I lost," said Taylor. "Right now, it's all about going back to the drawing board.

"I would like to fight him in my very first fight back."

Although Tayor's speed and defensive abilities kept him out of trouble through the first six rounds, Pavlik knew it was a matter of time before it ended.

"It seems like everything I threw at him, I hit him," he said. "I knew it was my fight."

The victory avenges Pavlik's loss to Taylor at the 2000 Olympic Trials. Taylor won by decision in that bout, but the four-year age difference (Kelly was 18, Taylor almost 22) and Taylor's experience (he'd fought twice as many amateur bouts) played a big part.

Taylor went on to win a bronze medal at the Olympics, while Pavlik lost a consolation bout to Tony Hanshaw. He turned pro soon afterward, signing with Top Rank Boxing.

Early scene

Saturday's championship bout began at 11:35 p.m. Pavlik's entrance brought raucous cheers from the crowd of 10,127. He arrived in the ring wearing a red-hooded sweat shirt accompanied by a thrash metal song. His gray shorts sported Ohio State's Block O. Just before the fight, Youngstown's Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini, the former lightweight champion, was announced, drawing more cheers from the crowd.

Taylor, of course, entered to a chorus of boos from the pro-Pavlik crowd. His trunks had an Arkansas Razorback emblem on the rear.

As the fight was set to begin, a chant of "Kelly! Kelly!" thundered through the arena. They'd been warming up for awhile.

Pavlik left his hotel room at Bally's just before 8:20 p.m. A crowd of about 30 fans crowded around him as he came out of the elevator. Members of Team Pavlik surrounded him as he walked through the casino floor and out of the building onto the Atlantic City Boardwalk.

As Pavlik made the 10-minute walk to Boardwalk Hall, dozens of fans cheered him on, taking pictures and shouting "Get him Kelly!" and "Let's do it tonight!"

Pavlik, looking peaceful and confident, smiled at the fans, giving thumbs up and pointing his index fingers into the sky. He even paused to sign one fan's boxing glove.

As he made his way through the arena to his locker room, hundreds of fans started cheering his name. He spent the next three hours relaxing in his room, pausing only to do a pre-fight interview with HBO, which televised the bout.

Thirty minutes after the fight ended, Team Pavlik member Mike Cefalde turned to Top Rank spokesman Lee Samuels and said, "We got ourselves a bad man, don't we?"

They do.

And so does Youngstown. As he left the ring, Pavlik shouted into the microphone, "Thank you, Youngstown! I love you so much!"

scalzo@vindy.com

Sunday, September 30, 2007