YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (WKBN) – Youngstown’s deep boxing story was seen downtown on Friday night. For the first time, an event took place where five former champions were on stage at the same time – a night of champions.
Not every city can say it’s home to five world champion boxers, but Youngstown can, and fans could hear about them all at the Youngstown Foundation Amphitheater on Friday.
Kelly Pavlik, Gregory Richardson, Ray “Boom Boom” Mancini, Harry Arroyo and Jeff Lampkin all attended Joe and Louie Schiavoni’s “Night of Champions” event.
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“As a small town as Youngstown and to bring out the champions – there are other places, Philadelphia, Michigan, but the thing is, a lot of these guys are not from this area,” Pavlik said.
Each fighter was brought out after a short video was played highlighting their career, and each fighter is proud to represent Youngstown.
“It was great for me because I just wanted to wear it around the world in a positive way, and I did and we did,” said Richardson.
Fans of all ages were there to relive memories of those fights or to get inspiration for the future.
“The coolest thing is that you meet all of these boxers. The boxers are pretty good after fighting all these people, ”said Anthony Santoyo, who attended the event.
Even Olympic gold medalist Sugar Ray Seales came to the event from Indiana.
“It’s great because we share the size with the fighters. I’ve been training with two teams in Indy for 11 years and we’ve won two Golden Glove Championships. I just love what I do, ”said Seales.
And the night ended with Mayor Tito Brown handing each boxer a key to the city.
