{"id":330015,"date":"2025-12-07T09:19:14","date_gmt":"2025-12-07T09:19:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/330015\/"},"modified":"2025-12-07T09:19:14","modified_gmt":"2025-12-07T09:19:14","slug":"dmitry-salita-the-orthodox-jewish-boxer-turned-champion-promoter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/330015\/","title":{"rendered":"Dmitry Salita: The Orthodox Jewish Boxer Turned Champion Promoter"},"content":{"rendered":"

The year was 2000. Dmitry Salita, a young Jew and immigrant from Ukraine, was making his ways up the ranks in boxing. After training under the legendary Jimmy O-Pharrow at Starrett City Boxing Club in Brooklyn, home of many top boxers, Dmitry was invited to compete in the under-19 U.S. national championships.<\/p>\n

The only problem? The final was going to be held on Shabbat, and Dmitry is an Orthodox Jew.<\/p>\n

\u201cShabbat is a show of trust in the fact that God runs the world, and we honor that fact by not doing certain things on Shabbat, even if they are very important to us,\u201d Dmitry said.<\/p>\n

If Dmitry won his fights, he was going to have to box at 2 p.m. that upcoming Saturday, well before Shabbat ended.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey said I would be disqualified if I didn\u2019t compete,\u201d he said. \u201cI had a lot of talented boxers in my weight class. I told myself, \u2018Let me take it one day at a time.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Throughout the week, Dmitry kept winning his fights and made it to the semi-finals and it looked like he was going to be told to compete on Shabbat. In an interview, sports journalist Dylan Hern\u00e1ndez asked him, \u201cWhat can we expect from you in the finals?\u201d<\/p>\n

He replied, \u201cI won\u2019t box in them. It\u2019s at two in the afternoon on Saturday.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dylan then said to Dmitry, \u201cLet me see what I can do for you.\u201d<\/p>\n

And just like that, \u201cthe time of my fight was changed,\u201d Dmitry said. \u201cMy trainer, Jimmy, said the Lord works in mysterious ways. I had no idea how it happened, and I still don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Dmitry went on to compete in and win the U.S. national championship. He was then invited to fight in the New York Golden Gloves at Madison Square Garden, which was going to be on a Friday night.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen, they changed it to Thursday, and I won,\u201d Dmitry said. \u201cI got the Sugar Ray Robinson Award for outstanding boxers. I turned professional.\u201d<\/p>\n

He signed the first professional contract in sports stating that none of his fights would be scheduled on Shabbat or Jewish holidays.<\/p>\n

Dmitry started working with Bob Arum, a promoter who also worked with George Foreman, Manny Pacquiao, and Oscar De La Hoya. He signed the first professional contract in sports stating that none of his fights would be scheduled on Shabbat or Jewish holidays.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cI have gratitude for the fact that there is such a day that has helped generations of Jews stay connected to our faith,\u201d he said. \u201cI believe this is one of the greatest gifts God has given us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Humble Beginnings<\/p>\n

Dmitriy and his family left Ukraine in 1991, after the fall of the Soviet Union, and during the second wave of Soviet Russian Jewry emigrating to the U.S. In the Ukraine, they had experienced antisemitism.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy father would get passed over for promotions because he was Jewish,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Dmitry and his family, who were not religious, moved to Flatbush, Brooklyn. It wasn\u2019t easy; they were on food stamps and welfare. At the age of 13, he discovered boxing and dove right into it, training with peers at Starrett City Boxing Club who would go onto become world champions.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy own challenges as an immigrant fueled me,\u201d he said. \u201cI was around kids who had similar financial challenges like I did. We came from different communities and backgrounds, but we found boxing \u2013 and I found my people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dmitry was not among other Jews at the boxing club.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cThey say the thinnest book in the library is the one on Jewish athletes,\u201d he said. \u201cJews were the most dominant ethnic group in boxing in the 1920s and 1930s. After the 1940s, though, it really thinned out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Discovering His Judaism<\/p>\n

The young boxer started doing very well, making his way into the championships. It was clear he had talent. At the same time, he was discovering his Judaism. While he\u2019d always believed in God, he wasn\u2019t traditionally observant. Then, all that changed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was 14 years old, my mother had breast cancer and was sharing a room in the hospital with a religious lady,\u201d he said. \u201cThis lady\u2019s husband came to visit her. We spent the entire day together. They took my information and gave it to a local Chabad rabbi, Rabbi Zalman Liberow of Chabad of Flatbush. Between the difficulties of immigration and school and my mom being sick, I decided I would go there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dmitry found meaning in it and took on religious observance. He asked his rabbi for a blessing.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe said, \u2018I suggest you write a letter to the Rebbe,\u2019\u201d Dmitry said. \u201cThe letter I got back was, \u2018You will be successful in what you do and have influence over people but do your job according to Torah.\u2019 My rabbi told me, \u2018For you, this means you can\u2019t box on Shabbat.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Dmitry told his rabbi, \u201cThis is a very big request. It\u2019s impossible,\u201d but he trusted in God.<\/p>\n

And so, he ended up not having to box on Shabbat throughout his entire prestigious career. At one point, he was invited to the White House and met President Bush and President Obama.<\/p>\n

Now, after an accomplished career in boxing, Dmitry is not only a proud husband and father, he is also a successful promoter. He currently represents more than 30 boxers, including world champion Claressa Shields. He works hard and travels for his job, always praying three times a day, keeping kosher wherever he goes, and attending a Jewish class once a week.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cMy ultimate goal, professionally, is to continue to grow my business and find meaning in what I do,\u201d he said. \u201cI feel that everybody\u2019s talent is a divine expression. You have to use it responsibly to make the world a better place and influence it in a good way.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The year was 2000. Dmitry Salita, a young Jew and immigrant from Ukraine, was making his ways up…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":330016,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[703,49,48,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-330015","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-boxing","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330015","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=330015"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330015\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/330016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=330015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=330015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=330015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}