FIGHT NIGHT: Buzz in Beeghly grew slowly

Pavlik vs. Espino

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Jake Giuriceo vs. Henri White

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Chris Hazimihalis vs. Norman Allen

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Campbell High graduate Christos Hazimihalis wins his pro debut at YSU's Beeghly Center Dec. 19, 2009 as part of the undercard for the Kelly Pavlik title fight.

A steady stream of fans entered the facility in the hours leading up to Kelly Pavlik’s fight.

By Jon Moffett

YOUNGSTOWN — Joe and Nick DeLucia were among the few fans in their seats as the first fight began — and ended — Saturday night.

Only about 500 fans were seated in Youngstown State University’s Beeghly Center to witness the beginning of a super welterweight match between Omar Henry and Jessie Davis. A few more fans trickled in as Davis hit the mat about 21‚Ñ2 minutes later.

“That was pretty cool,” Nick DeLucia, 13, said about the fight, the first he had ever seen in person.

For his birthday (Dec. 17), Nick was given two tickets to Saturday’s fight, which featured a main event of Kelly Pavlik defending his WBO and WBC middleweight championship belts against Miguel Espino.

Hours later the Beeghly Center had about 2,500 spread out across the arena, still about two hours before Pavlik’s match. The upper-level seats — about a dozen rows of bleachers on all four sides of the area — remained empty as fans moved as close to the ring as possible.

The lower sections had many red seats scattered among the masses.

Scattered among the seats were plenty of Pavlik’s new T-shirts. The design for this fight featured a pair of blue boxing gloves, one with Kelly’s ghost logo on it, dangling. The back featured a blue “Y” with “town” written below it.

With the exception of Pavlik, fans cheered the loudest for the ring girls, who were introduced during an intermission, and for another local fighter.

Chris Hazimihalis made his professional debut in a lightweight fight against the winless Norman Allen of Toledo. The crowd erupted as the match was called about one minute into the third round as Hazimihalis earned a technical knockout.

Vendors continued to hock $10 programs and $3.50 bottles of water as the rest of the undercard played out. A hesitant crowd started to gain some momentum and energy by about 8:30 p.m. in anticipation of Pavlik’s bout.

Famous ring announcer Michael Buffer went down to ringside during a match virtually unnoticed. A few fans were still filing into the arena, but crowds at the door had subsided.

As classic rock anthems blasted through the arena, the collective excitement built as the evening went on.

The venue for the fight was in question as tickets didn’t sell as well as expected. Fans, however, didn’t seem to have many gripes about the facility.

“They weren’t going to be able to fight in the Covelli Centre, so this is the next best thing,” said Paul Makosky, 41 of Warren.

Makosky and his nephew, Micahel Fye, 22, who was in the area from Florida, had seats in the upper bleachers and couldn’t have been happier.

“There’s not a bad seat in this place,” Makosky said. “You’re right on top of the ring and you can see everything. I have no complaints.”

moffett@vindy.com