BOXING

BOXING

Underdog Pavlik
had his day

Fanfare:

May 19 was an historic day for Youngstown. Kelly “The Ghost” Pavlik KO’d Edison Miranda to become the undisputed No. 1 contender for the middleweight title.

Kelly Pavlik represented Youngstown in many respects that Saturday night. Miranda was a heavy favorite, both in Vegas and in the media. Just before the fight, HBO aired a short documentary about Miranda: his life, his training, his hometown, and his childhood. HBO mentioned nothing about Kelly Pavlik, save the announcers declaration of Pavlik’s name and weight. This did not appear to bother Pavlik, and I doubt it bothered anybody from Youngstown. Anybody born in Youngstown knows what it is like to be an underdog.

Youngstown is a city famous for ugly things: shutdown steel mills, laid-off factory workers, poverty, murder, organized crime and corruption in politics. In the last 20 years, Youngstown has seen a congressman (amongst judges and other public officials) go to prison, a prosecutor have his house bombed, and his [the prosecutor’s] successor gunned down by Mafioso in his house on Christmas Eve. The once beautiful city may appear dead to some.

As I was watching Pavlik fight, unaffected by Miranda’s hype, I remembered hearing stories of how he became named “The Ghost.” Long before the HBO events, Pavlik was fighting in Struthers. That was the first time I heard an explanation for his handle. Apparently, Pavlik’s sparring partners called him that because he moved so well that they felt they were trying to punch a ghost.

My mind wandered to “Lean On Me,” a film in which Morgan Freeman portrays a principal who takes a run-down high school with a bad reputation and gives it hope. The school appears dead to the rest of the world. However, Freeman’s character, Joe Clark, points out to his students that the school mascot is the ghost, and that ghosts rise from the dead.

It seems fitting that someone who could get the world to associate Youngstown with greatness should be called The Ghost. Not since Boom-Boom Mancini (some 20 years ago) has Youngstown had such pride in one individual, and Pavlik’s pride in his hometown is evident in every fight.

Pavlik is a reminder to the rest of the world that Youngstown is not dead. Additionally, he is a reminder to every underdog who has ever grown up in a town like Youngstown (if there is such a thing) that they too can be the greatest.

Bill Barner

Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.

XThe author is Assistant State Attorney with the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit of Florida.