Some More Jewish Boxing

Yesterday, I mentioned that the documentary on Jewish boxer Dmitry Salita is available on Hulu. So while we are on the subject of Jewish boxing, we might as well mention that there is another Jewish boxer out there who has a pretty big fight coming up next weekend.

Waiting for the subway every morning and afternoon, I pass by posters for this upcoming match between Miguel Cotto and Yuri Foreman at Yankee Stadium. The fight is going to be on HBO, if you are interested in watching (which luckily for boxing fans, means it won’t be on PPV).

There is a cool feature on ESPN.com today about Foreman. What makes Foreman’s story every sportswriter’s dream? Well, beyond having a great story about being born in the former Soviet Union, growing up in Israel and then moving to Brooklyn with the dream of becoming a champion, Foreman is also training to become an Orthodox rabbi. That’s pretty impressive for a guy who trains full time and is considered a top boxer in his weight class.

There is some pretty good stuff in the ESPN.com article. For one, because the fight is on a Saturday night, and Foreman is shomer Shabbat (and I would have to assume that he wouldn’t want to spend his entire Shabbat at a baseball stadium…as nice as it is), Foreman isn’t going to be able to head over to the Bronx until Shabbat ends, which by ESPN.com’s figures, is 9:13 at night.

You should read the whole article because it is pretty cool. But if you want to watch ESPN’s video piece on him, it’s just as awesome.