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Loew excited by turnout
By Joe Scalzo
YOUNGSTOWN
When Jack Loew first thought up the idea of holding an outdoor boxing show, his dream was an event at the Covelli Centre with competitive fights, some fireworks and enough fan interest that people would be watching from the South Avenue bridge.
He was willing to settle for breaking even. Fortunately, he got his dream.
“I thought it was a great event for the city,” said Loew, the co-founder of Ghost Promotions along with his fighter, Kelly Pavlik. “People wanted to call it a club show, but I thought we dressed it up a lot better than that.”
Needing between 900-950 paid fans to break even, Loew instead got more than 1,500 Friday night — most of whom came early and stayed late.
“We did very well,” said Loew, who praised his son, John, for doing much of the behind-the-scenes work. “I probably couldn’t have done the show without John.
“[Ohio Athletic Commissioner] Bernie Profato praised him, and I’ve never heard Bernie compliment anybody.”
It was a good omen considering Pavlik is scheduled to fight — indoors — at the Covelli Centre on Aug. 6. Pavlik posed for photos for an hour before Friday’s show and got a warm ovation when he was introduced to the crowd between bouts. Loew knows this bout won’t draw the 7,000-plus that Pavlik drew for his February 2009 bout at the Covelli Centre, but he thinks there’s still strong interest.
“It’s the summer, and people have vacations and holidays and kids playing football, so while we’d love to put 7,000 in a stadium like that, it’d be really tough,” Loew said. “But we think we can get 3,000 to 4,500 based on Kelly’s name and having a good undercard.”
Tickets will go on sale “soon” and Loew expects them to range from $25 to $150. Although Pavlik will be fighting on short notice — his eight-week training camp will be closer to five — Loew isn’t worried.
“We’ll be in good enough shape for the fight,” said Loew, whose fighter will meet Detroit’s Darryl Cunningham. “We want to get some rounds and hopefully get our timing back and move on from there.
“I definitely want to see him be a lot more aggressive and a lot more physical. Like we were against Edison Miranda and Jermain Taylor, where we push our will against the guy.”
Loew plans to make Dannie Williams — who fought Friday’s main event — the opening TV bout on Aug. 6, provided Williams’ injured right hand checks out on Tuesday. Williams injured it in the second round of Friday’s bout against Oscar Cuero.
If he’s OK, he expects a better performance from Williams, who earned a 10-round unanimous decision.
“I don’t think people saw the best Dannie Williams,” Loew said. “Maybe I’m trying to make people like Dannie so much and he put so much pressure on himself, he was trying too hard to get the knockout.”
Youngstown’s Juan Salinas lost by second round TKO to Adam Dearien in his pro debut, which was the biggest disappointment Friday. Considering Salinas’ amateur background — about 65 fights — and Dearien’s lack of amateur or pro experience (his only fights have been Toughman competitions), Loew came away concerned.
“Juan was definitely not overmatched,” Loew said. “He’s seen way better competition than that, so hopefully Juan had a bad night and it’s not a case of a bad chin.”