Sore and worn-out, Kelly Pavlik is back home

Kelly Pavlik cuddled with his daughter, Sydney, and nieces Samantha and MacKenzie Pavlik, on his parents Cornell Avenue couch, looking just about worn out.

He’d just returned to Youngstown Sunday night from Las Vegas after a grueling 12-round unanimous decision over Jermaine Taylor, the man from whom he’d taken the middleweight boxing title four months ago.

Pavlik knocked Taylor out in the seventh round of the championship fight but he said this non-title victory was “even better.”

Taylor is rated as perhaps the best boxer in the division, Pavlik said.

“I went in there and outboxed him,” he said.

Pavlik said he thought the fight was “real close” and said he felt a momentary scare with the ring announcer gave the first judge’s score and he wasn’t sure he had won.

Mike Pavlik, his father, said he didn’t think the fight would last 12 rounds, based on the ferocity and style of the two boxers.

“He’s feeling pretty bad,” he said of his son, noting he has sore ribs and hands and a big contusion on his left forearm.

There were concerns that Pavlik might have broken his right had during the fight, but his father said that hasn’t been determined and that Kelly would be examined by a doctor today.

Kelly didn’t seem concerned about it.

“It’s pretty good,” he said when asked about the hand, and extended it to show some severe swelling.

Outside the Pavlik home, about a dozen well-wishers gathered to show their support for Pavlik. Several city police officers were also on hand, saying they’d met the Pavlik entourage at the Pennsylvania line to give them an escort back to Youngstown.

The team had flown into the airport in Pittsburgh.

Lorie Lesnansky of Philadelphia Avenue and Denise Stahara of Boston Avenue (”a couple of streets over”) arrived too late to greet Pavlik as he went inside but that didn’t dampen their spirits.

They said they are Pavlik fans and have been following his career for seven or eight years. Lesnansky said Pavlik graduated from Lowellville High School with her daughter, Jenny.

“I live on the South Side, so I follow him — hometown hero,” Stahara said.

Pavlik said he plans to take about a month off and then it’s back into training camp. He’ll have another fight in about six months, he said, noting that Top Rank, his promoter, will decide who he will face.