Pavlik tickets going on sale soon
By Joe Scalzo
Prices are $50, $100, $150 and $250 for the Dec. 19 event, and seats will be available 9 a.m. Wednesday.
YOUNGSTOWN — Kelly Pavlik’s fans won’t have to wait until Black Friday to start their Christmas shopping.
Tickets for Pavlik’s upcoming middleweight title fight against Miguel Espino at YSU’s Beeghly Center will go on sale 9 a.m. Wednesday on Tickets.com. Tickets for the Dec. 19 bout will cost $50, $100, $150 and $250.
YSU’s ticket office is closed from Wednesday through the holiday weekend, meaning Tickets.com will be the only site offering tickets next week. An $8 processing fee is added to each ticket.
The Beeghly Center ticket office will re-open on Nov. 30, but those tickets will also carry the processing fee.
“Your best bet is to get them through Tickets.com next week, rather than wait until the ticket office opens the following week,” said Shannon Tirone, YSU’s executive director of events management. “Because once they’re gone, they’re gone.”
Tickets for February’s bout between Pavlik and Marco Antonio Rubio at Covelli ranged from $50 to $500, with about 5,000 of the available 7,500 tickets selling in less than 30 minutes, including all the $50 and $100 seats.
Beeghly Center will seat about 7,000.
Pavlik (35-1, 31 KOs), who is making his first title defense since then, will join Espino for a press conference 3 p.m. Tuesday in Las Vegas.
Pavlik is training in Las Vegas for the bout. He usually trains in Youngstown.
Espino (20-2-1, 9 KOs), of North Hollywood, Calif., is riding a four-year, 11-bout winning streak, with his last four victories coming by way of knockout.
The fight will be televised live on pay-per-view by Top Rank.
Pavlik’s trainer, Jack Loew, said he’s gotten a big response from area fans already. He ordered between 70 and 80 of the $150 and $250 tickets through Top Rank — those are all gone, he said — about $45,000 worth of general admission seats. Loew sells the tickets for face value (which includes the $8 processing fee, in this case) and does not make a profit.
“I only have about five or 10 of the general admission seats left,” he said, “so my response has been great.”
Loew is also in charge of the undercard bouts and plans to showcase local fighters Chris Hazimihalis of Campbell (who will make his pro debut) and Jake Giuriceo of Campbell and Struthers (who made his pro debut on February’s undercard). Both have big local followings.
“That’s the key,” Loew said. “They have so many fans, and they’re going to sell a lot of tickets. I think it’s going to be a really good show.”