Setting my alarm

[ferocious]

I'll be getting up at 4am tonight to watch the re-match between kelly pavlik & jermain taylor..! I set my alarm last september to watch the first bout but i was in pattaya so it was 10am in the sportsman soi13 & was not disappointed as they produced fight of the year... i'm going for pavlik again & maybe quicker this time

dRNyjq7wkcQ

[mack]

Was just reading this right before your post f:


Pavlik may be humble, but it's time to rumble
Greg Beacham, Associated Press
Saturday, February 16, 2008

(02-16) 04:00 PST Las Vegas - --
Kelly Pavlik has an opulent two-level suite at the MGM Grand, yet he sleeps on the couch most nights. Although he could have any food in any quantity delivered to his room, he stood in line for the buffet this week, signing autographs while waiting his turn at the mountains of shrimp and prime rib. And when Pavlik wandered by a boutique jewelry store recently, he was attracted to a $1,000 watch - until he saw the price tag. "Kelly just couldn't swallow that, so he bought the $400 one instead," said his longtime trainer, Jack Loew.

Pavlik's fame and wealth, derived from knocking out Jermain Taylor for the world middleweight championship last year, have done nothing to change a skinny, underestimated fighter still held fast by his roots in Youngstown, Ohio. "I'm not one of those fancy guys that likes to live it up," Pavlik said. "That's just not me. You can't pretend to be something you're not. That's a waste of time and money."

Pavlik (32-0, 29 KOs) sometimes still feels like a visitor in the rarefied world he entered 4 1/2 months ago, but another win over Taylor would help him get comfortable. He can't lose the belt in their 166-pound nontitle rematch at the MGM Grand Garden tonight (HBO pay-per-view), but it's a chance to prove his upset victory in Atlantic City was the culmination of 15 years of hard work, and not a few lucky punches after Taylor (27-1-1, 17 KOs) tired himself out. Pavlik might be the same, but his life has changed since he survived a second-round knockdown and roared back for a seventh-round stoppage. He's now a bona fide celebrity in Ohio, starting with the police escort from the state line when he drove home from beating Taylor - even though he accidentally left his $666,750 check in his hotel room.

In between dozens of appearances for various charities, he threw out the first pitch at a Cleveland Indians playoff game, attracting so much attention from the players during his locker room visit that manager Eric Wedge had to remind them of the upcoming game. Pavlik also tossed the coin at a Cleveland Browns game, and he even spoke to the Ohio State football team before its latest demolition of Michigan. "I went to all these places and said, 'You guys want to talk to me?' " Pavlik recalled. "When you're a fan of these guys for all those years, it's pretty amazing to be on the inside like that."

His rise has been a boon to blue-collar Youngstown, near the heart of the Rust Belt's gloom. The town's embrace of Pavlik reminds everyone of the glory days of Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini, the charismatic former lightweight champion from the same humble beginnings. "He's been a great lightning rod of hope for the people of Youngstown," said Mancini, who played Pop Warner football with Loew. "When I fought, people were looking for something with the steel mills closing, and people lived through me. Now there's been another economic downturn in the last few years, and they're living through Kelly."

This article appeared on page D - 2 of the San Francisco Chronicle