Brooklyn Orthodox Rabbi Yuri Foreman Returns to the Boxing Ring
Yuri Foreman working out in Gleason’s Gym in Brooklyn, Nov. 17, 2015. Image by Getty Images
Former junior middleweight boxing champion and newly ordained Orthodox rabbi Yuri Foreman is ending his two-year hiatus from the ring.
Foreman, 35, will fight Lenwood Dozier at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, on Saturday night, Dec. 5.
According to ESPN, to win a world title in over 70 years when he beat Daniel Santos in 2009. After losing to Miguel Cotto at Yankee Stadium in 2010 and sustaining a series of injuries, he quit the sport in 2013.
During his hiatus, Foreman was ordained as a rabbi by Dovber Pinson, a Chabad rabbi based in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, The Algemeiner reported.
“Coming back is a great feeling for me, especially to be coming back as a rabbi,” Foreman told Newsday.
Yuri Foreman working out in Gleason’s Gym in Brooklyn, Nov. 17, 2015. Image by Getty Images
“For my observant friends, the fight starts early so for those who live a little distance from Barclays Center, you should start walking early and then take a train. I will be fighting after sundown, so it will all be kosher.”
Foreman, who was born in Belarus and grew up in Israel, now lives in Park Slope, Brooklyn.
“Boxing is a very spiritual sport. We all have different paths. My faith keeps me centered and focused. You can be anyone. You can be a rabbi and still be fighting on the big stage at Barclays Center,” Foreman said.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
