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Mar 24, 2009

The Star of David - Dimitry Salita

The Star of David. That is Dimitry Slaita's nickname. Salita, the Jewish, orthodox, boxer, has been a rising star for about 6 years... He has yet to get a shot at the title in his class, despite his 27-0 record.

Sports Illustrated has an article about him...

On the one hand, it is hard to feel too bad for Salita. Some in the sport consider him to be only a slightly above-average talent, whose sterling record has been paved on the backs of subpar opponents like Munoz. Yet, as MMA steals boxing's thunder, and HBO hands us one forgettable (and often recycled) schlub after another, the question I have is this: Why not give the guy a chance?

If Salita is turned into matzo farfel by a Kotelnik or Ricky Hatton or Willy Blain, well, he slinks off into the sunset and pursues his next goal of earning a law degree. "They give me a title shot and I get killed," said Salita, "and I promise HBO, I will never bother them again."

But what if Salita, the "Chosen One," wins? What if the kid with the funny name, the quick fists and the phylacteries steps up and gives boxing its first Jewish junior welterweight champion since Barney Ross more than 70 years ago?

matzo farfel? do people make that on Pesach?

I say they should give him a shot at the title. Go Salita! Make us proud. Orthodox jews can be athletes!

15 comments:

  1. I'm not going to be the one to judge a baal teshuva, but I just want to say that I find boxing an utterly repulsive sport, and completely out of character with Jewish values. If boxing is the one thing from the secular world that Dimitry cannot let go of, that's his business, but I have no interest in his success in a sport where the stated objective is to beat your opponent senseless - any more than I would be rooting for a Jew to earn the Guiness World Record for most cockroaches eaten in 60 seconds.

    ReplyDelete
  2. SHAUL:

    "completely out of character with Jewish values"

    interesting, because chabad has a lot invested in him specifically as a jewish boxer

    (and before world war 2 boxing was one of the sports most identified with jews, albeit not frum jews)

    ReplyDelete
  3. "interesting, because chabad has a lot invested in him specifically as a jewish boxer"

    Some Chabadniks have gone off the rails (or onto the ropes), so what does that prove. AKAIK, official Chabad does not support this.

    ReplyDelete
  4. chabadnik - 2 questions:
    1. AKAIK - what does that stand for?
    2. Which group is considered "official chabad"?


    Shaul - personally I am no fan of boxing. But I am always happy to see a Jew excel at what he does. really anybody, but it is especially nice, and maybe a sense of pride perhaps, when a jews excels.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thanks "Chabadnik" - you stole my thunder. :)
    Even if this was "offical" Chabad supporting him, it wouldn't be the first time I've taken a diametrically opposite Halachic/Hashkafic view from Chabad...

    ReplyDelete
  6. Rafi, if a Jew was excelling at eating cockroaches in record time, would you be happy to see that, too?
    To me, boxing is not just a sport like American Football in which I have no interest. Boxing is ugly, brutal and repulsive, and G-d knows how many issurim you're over when you beat a fellow human being senseless - even with his implied consent. Frankly it saddens me when a "frum" Jew is in the limelight as a champion in such a sport.

    ReplyDelete
  7. so what is the first K? I thought it might be a typo, but the F and K are far apart from each other... I am familiar with AFAIK...

    ReplyDelete
  8. Dmitriy Salita is not fighting on HBO
    because of two anti-semites:
    1. Luis Barragan
    2. Kerry Davis
    and Ross Greenburg jewish executive who makes million dollars salary and doesn't give a shit about Salita, and/or his fellow co-workers who don't let Salita fight on HBO

    ReplyDelete
  9. It doesn't matter what he does boxing
    or singing, you like it or you don't.
    The problem here is that boxing executives who happened to be anti-semites don't let him fight on HBO because of his religious believes. It is really scary what's going - because it is antisemitism that's taking place right here in New
    York. It is not about Salita any more, it is about discrimination against jewish people.

    ReplyDelete
  10. your mother makes it you ingrate because your enemies should be "farfallen"i.e., fade away or fall away. Another chumra for my granddaughter.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Ma makes farfel for Rosh Hashana. I dont remember her making it for pesach...

    ReplyDelete
  12. Discrimination against Salita is discrimination against jewish people.
    It is not taking place in third world country, it's taking place in New York where jewish population is second to Israel.
    At this point it's time for ADL which
    has an office in New York to address
    discrimination of Dmitriy Salita number one ranked boxer in the world.
    He makes a lot of jewish people proud, he stands for jewish values
    and antisemites don't like it.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Salita-HBO situation was discussed on russian radio for 2 hours this morning

    Russian jews and jews from crown are protesting.
    You treat Salita the same way you treated Joe Luis
    when he fought Max Shmeling. It sets up bad example to jewish kids - you can be #1 and not given fight on TV because you are not spanish...
    Capitalism exuse doesn't work guys from russia, europe and Africa fight on HBO nobody knows who they are until they fight on HBO.
    Exuse Salita didn't or don't wanna fight nobody
    doesn't work either because his proposed fights
    with Gavin Reyes, Paul Malignaggie, Andreas Kotelnik all were turned down by HBO
    Salita is official challenger to fight Andreas Kotelnik, no exuses - it's racism.
    Racism is not necessarily whites against black,
    it can be blacks against whites, or spanish against whites.

    Don't treat us like second class citizens because we
    are jewish

    ReplyDelete
  14. Bob Arum's war on judaism

    What do you expect from a greedy man, who betrayed his own people.
    Bob Arum betrayed jews, judaism, he goes against the Rebbe, and it's not good.
    Bob Arum worships gold not G-d, he will end up like those jews who worshiped golden caf

    ReplyDelete

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