City gears up for celebration to honor Pavlik

The middleweight boxing champ will receive a special escort to the rally.

By DAVID SKOLNICK

CITY HALL REPORTER

YOUNGSTOWN — “Back Home Where It All Began.”

That’s the name of Friday’s celebration on Central Square downtown to honor newly crowned middleweight boxing champion Kelly Pavlik of Youngstown. “The Ghost’s” hometown is sponsoring the event.

“We had talked about an event to honor him before the fight and we are so excited to celebrate his victory,” said Mayor Jay Williams. “What a celebration we’re going to have in the streets of Youngstown.”

City officials say they’ve received dozens and dozens of telephone calls from people throughout Northeast Ohio wanting to know details of the rally to honor the champ.

“The level of excitement is tremendous,” Williams said.

Pavlik captured the WBC and WBO middleweight titles Saturday with a seventh-round knockout of then-champion Jermain Taylor in Atlantic City, N.J. At least 5,000 fans from the Youngstown area attended the title fight.

Lots of room

The number of people expected to attend Friday’s rally isn’t known, but the city will be able to accommodate any size crowd, said Claire Maluso, who’s organizing the event.

“We invite everyone to come out,” said Maluso, the city’s director of events, special projects and community outreach. “It will be a lot of fun. People are really, really excited about this.”

The event kicks off at 5 p.m., with Pavlik and his team arriving about 5:30 p.m.

And it will be quite the arrival, Maluso said.

The city police department’s honor guard, the fire department and the Plazateer Band will escort Pavlik and his team, who will be in three limousines, from the Market Street Bridge to Central Square.

Pavlik will stand in one of the limos with the sunroof open so fans can get a look and a wave from the middleweight champion of the world as the motorcade makes it to Central Square.

Pavlik had been asked by Top Rank, his promoter, to be in Las Vegas for a super featherweight title bout this weekend. He passed on that to be in Youngstown so he can say thanks to his local fans.

skolnick@vindy.com