Back home, Pavlik revels in Valley fans

Pavlik Homecoming

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BY JOHN KOVACH

VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF

YOUNGSTOWN — City of Youngstown: This one’s for you.

That’s how Kelly “The Ghost” Pavlik feels after coming off the canvas in the second round to stop defending champion and previously-unbeaten Jermain Taylor on a seventh-round TKO to win the world WBC/WBO boxing championship Saturday night in Atlantic City, N.J., and continue undefeated.

“Youngstown was behind me. The fans were behind me. My training and the fans help me to win,” said Pavlik during his homecoming in front of his home on Cornell Avenue on the South Side, after returning from the Pittsburgh airport in a loud and colorful motor cavalcade escorted by about 20 police, fire and other city vehicles.

“They were saying at the fight that they never saw such a turnout of fans and such a reaction from the fans for one fighter at a fight in Atlantic City.”

Pavlik (32-0, 29 KOs) recalled that when Taylor (27-1-1, 17 KOs) knocked him down in the second round — because he lowered his left hand and exposed his head to the punch — his intensive training and the cheers of the 5,000 Youngstown fans in the Boardwalk Casino are the forces that drove him on and helped him to recover.

“He hurt me, but I could hear the count and I could hear the fans cheering. My legs were wobbly and giving way. But my training enabled me to survive the round, and then I got to rest in between rounds, and then I went on the attack with my left jab that kept Taylor away from me and gave me more time to recuperate,” explained Pavlik, 25, a Lowellvile High graduate.

For complete story, see Monday’s Vindicator or www.vindy.com.