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January 23, 2004/Tevet 29 5764, Vol. 56, No. 18
Boxer prays, fights hard
JENNIFER GOLDBERG
Staff Writer
Welterweight Dmitriy Salita boasts a 16-0 record going into his Jan. 31 fight.
Photo courtesy of Bill Caplan
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On the phone, Dmitriy Salita is a polite young man with a charming Russian accent. In the boxing ring, he lets his fists do the talking.
The 21-year-old welterweight is scheduled to fight Miguel Ruiz in a nontelevised match at an HBO Boxing After Dark event at Phoenix's Dodge Theater on Saturday, Jan. 31. At stake is Salita's pristine 16-0 record and the hopes of Jewish boxing fans around the world.
Salita is an Orthodox Jew who emigrated from Odessa, Ukraine, to Brooklyn at the age of 9 with his parents and older brother, Mikhail. When he was 13, he was inspired to take up boxing.
"I used to watch fights on TV, "Rocky" movies, and things like that, and I became interested in it," he says. "I liked it and I felt very comfortable at the boxing gym (Starrett City Boxing Club in Brooklyn). I wanted to be the best at it. It was never a hobby; I always took it very seriously."
The first lesson one learns about Salita is that he doesn't do anything halfway. Not long after he began boxing, he connected with the second driving passion of his life: his faith.
Although Salita characterizes himself during childhood as "religious, but non-observant," around the age of 14 he began to take a serious interest in Judaism.
"I felt like it was my duty as a Jew to know what God wanted for me and to know my history and explore it," he recalls. "I always felt like I had a relationship with God, but being observant helped me grow in it."
Today, Salita is an Orthodox Jew who attends Chabad Lubavitch of Flatbush, N.Y. He observes kashruth and declines to fight on Shabbat, a personal conviction that caused trouble for him at the beginning of his career when he chose to miss several important matches rather than compromise his beliefs. Now, a clause in Salita's contract stipulates his exemption from Friday night fights.
Salita says he accepts such negotiations as a part of life. "It's not anything extraordinary," he insists. "The challenges that are present are like the challenges that are present at any other job. It's part of being a Jew, and it's just up to you to work around the circumstances."
When he's not traveling around the country boxing, Salita is at home in Brooklyn helping out at his synagogue. Part of what he does is spread the word to get the local Jewish community to attend holiday and regular services, a responsibility he hopes to continue long after his boxing career has ended.
He says, "God willing, (after I retire) I'll be financially set to open up a few businesses and be really involved in the community, working with my synagogue to bring the Jews back to Judaism."
For more information, visit www.dsalita.com.
Details
- What: HBO Boxing After Dark
- When: 6:30 p.m., Saturday, Jan. 31 (doors open at 5:30 p.m.)
- Where: Dodge Theater, 400 W. Washington St., Phoenix
- Cost: $25-$78
- Call: 602-379-2888
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