By Joe Scalzo

February 16, 2008

We’re less than 24 hours away from Pavlik-Taylor II. Here’s a few Friday night notes:

If you’re in Vegas and you’re planning to come to the undercard bouts, the doors open at the MGM Grand Garden Arena at 3 p.m. PST and the first fight will follow soon afterward. It’s a good undercard, so it’d be worthwhile to get to the arena by 6 p.m., which is when the pay-per-view broadcast begins. Pavlik’s bout is scheduled to start around 11 or 11:15 EST, which is 8 or 8:15 out here.

Check out Bert Sugar’s scouting report of Saturday’s bout on HBO.com/boxing. Sugar not only knows his stuff, he’s one of the few reporters who still wears a fedora, which used to be standard in this business. (There’s no press tag in the brim, though.) You almost want to walk up to him and ask him who he likes in the fourth race at Belmont.

Speaking of crusty boxing experts, HBO’s Larry Merchant was at the weigh-in and hung around the media room afterward. He was wearing a blue warm-up suit and looked like he was about to go to a shuffleboard tournament in Orlando.

Boxing’s a funny sport. You’ll see bigwigs (like Top Rank’s Bob Arum) wearing $5,000 suits next to guys who look like they’re getting ready for their Saturday night bowling league. (Pavlik’s co-manager, Cameron Dunkin, is a good example.) Pavlik leans toward the latter. It’s pretty rare to catch him in a suit -- he prefers jeans and a T-shirt or a warm-up outfit. Taylor is definitely the snazzier dresser.

Then again, Taylor’s made a lot more money.

Pavlik has looked very comfortable this week. I get the sense that he’s very confident, although he’s a pretty confident guy anyway. Taylor, meanwhile, handled today’s weigh-in much better than he did in September, when he seemed overwhelmed by the pro-Pavlik crowd. I think he was blindsided a little bit the first time. This time, he knew it was coming so he had a little fun with it.

Be sure to check out Vindy.com Saturday night. I’ll blog some thoughts during the undercard bouts -- I’m sure they’ll be just as uninformative as my other blog entries -- and we’ll also have round-by-round updates once Pavlik’s fight begins.

And, of course, there’s plenty of great stuff in the paper. In fact, you should all subscribe. Our main number is 330-747-1471. Operators are standing by. And while you’re at it, buy some ads. I want to keep this job.