Pavlik roundup | News and notes

Ringside stars: Several big-time athletes with Ohio ties are expected to be ringside for next week’s bout, including Ohio State coach Jim Tressel, the longtime coach at Youngstown State, and Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops, who graduated from Cardinal Mooney with Kelly Pavlik’s trainer, Jack Loew. Others expected to attend are Cleveland Browns quarterback Brady Quinn (a Columbus native who played collegiately at Notre Dame), Baltimore Ravens quarterback Troy Smith (a Cleveland native who won the Heisman Trophy at Ohio State), Green Bay Packers linebacker A.J. Hawk (a Dayton native who played at Ohio State) and ESPN analyst Kirk Hebrstreit (who played quarterback at Ohio State in the 1990s) and former lightweight boxing champion Vinny Pazienza. The Feb. 21 bout will be part of a two-site double feature on pay-per-view, with Miguel Cotto fighting Michael Jennings for the vacant WBO welterweight title at Madison Square Garden and Pavlik fighting Marco Antonio Rubio for the WBC and WBO middleweight titles at the Chevy Centre. “I’m sure there will be celebrities at the Garden,” said Top Rank chairman Bob Arum. “But nobody is going to beat the football team that we’re going to put together with the fans in Youngstown. It sounds like you’ve got a lot of All-Stars that are gonna be in attendance.”

Tickets: There are still a few hundred tickets remaining for the Pavlik-Rubio bout at $150, $200 and $300. As of Thursday night, fans could also buy single $500 tickets but those are no longer available in pairs. The $50 and $100 tickets sold out weeks ago.

Pay-per-view: The four-bout pay-per-view begins at 9 p.m. and is $44.95 for standard definition and $54.95 for high definition. The two televised undercard bouts feature Ireland’s John Duddy against Matt Vanda in a 10-round middleweight bout and Anthony Peterson fighting Edner Cherry in a 10-round lightweight bout. Pavlik’s bout is expected to start around 11:15 p.m. To order the broadcast, contact your cable or satellite provider.

T-shirts: Pavlik fight T-shirts are available at Buffalo Wild Wings in Austintown, Boardman, Niles and Youngstown, East Side Civics, Cornersburg Italian Specialties, Clemens Wine Cellar, Bedford Trails Golf Course, Shirt Wizard in Poland and Inner-Circle Pizza in Canfield. They are $26. You can also buy shirts and other merchandise at www.teampavlik.com.

Joe Scalzo