Yuri Foreman

Yuri Foreman was born in Gomel, in Belarus, then part of the Soviet Union. He started out as a swimmer, but his mother signed him up for boxing lessons at age seven after he experienced bullying and beatings. At age nine, he immigrated with his family to Israel.[2] Boxing was not popular in Israel and there were few boxing gyms so he trained at an Arab gym. On his early days in boxing, Foreman said:

The first time I walked in, I saw the stares. In their eyes, there was a lot of hatred. But I needed to box; and boy, did they all want to box me. After a while, the wall that was between us melted. We all wanted the same thing. I traveled with them as teammates. It helped that I won almost all the time. And finally, we became friends."[3]

In Israel he became an amateur boxer and won three national boxing championships.[4] In 1999, Foreman moved to Brooklyn, New York City.[2] He stated that the only reason he came to the United States was to pursue his dream of a professional boxing career, and saw no further opportunity to do so in Israel.[5] His first job was in the Garment District in Manhattan, where he made deliveries and swept the floors for a clothing store. At the same time, he began training at Gleason's Gym in Brooklyn, where he met his first wife, Leyla Leidecker.[3] The couple later divorced.[6] During this period of time was when he found a Brooklyn Heights synagogue while in search of enlightenment. He was quoted saying, "As I was maturing, as a person and a fighter, I realized that I needed some sort of spiritual center to achieve things physically, especially in boxing where you need to have good spiritual form and good physical form. I needed an outlet — a spiritual backbone, so I could push myself better, channel my energy, be more present."[7] He embarked on the long road to becoming a rabbi and was eventually ordained under the tutelage of Rabbi Dovber Pinson.[8]

In 2000, Foreman lost the New York Golden Gloves in the final,[9] but came back in 2001 to win the tournament.[2][4] During his amateur career, Foreman compiled a 75–5 record.[3]

At the onset of his professional career, Foreman's management team was unsuccessful procuring appropriate fights. Foreman struggled financially.[9] Around 2004, Foreman met Murray Wilson who became his manager. Wilson signed Foreman up with Bob Arum's Top Rank promotion company.[9]

WBA super welterweight champion

See also: Miguel Cotto vs. Yuri Foreman

Foreman and Miguel Cotto at their weigh-in, 2010

On November 14, 2009, Foreman defeated Daniel Santos by a 12-round unanimous decision to become the new WBA super welterweight champion and Israel's first WBA champion.[15] He also became Israel's first world boxing champion.[15] In early January 2010, Foreman began talks with Bob Arum to arrange for himself and Filipino boxer seven-division world champion Manny Pacquiao, to meet on March 13, 2010. However, Pacquiao rejected the offer.

Foreman fought Miguel Cotto on June 5, 2010, the first fight to take place at the new Yankee Stadium. Foreman went down from a slip in the 7th round when his already braced, right knee buckled. He got back to his feet and continued fighting despite heavily favoring the knee. After a few more falls from the knee giving out and Cotto beginning to land, Foreman's trainer Joe Grier threw in the towel midway through the 8th round. The ring filled with both camps and officials. Cotto and Foreman embraced, thinking it was over. Feeling that Foreman was in no immediate danger, however, Referee Arthur Mercante Jr. asked him if he wanted to continue, and he did. While the crowd was not sure what was happening, the ring was cleared after a delay of a couple of minutes and the fight resumed with about half the round remaining. Cotto landed a left hook to the body and Foreman went down 42 seconds into the 9th round and Mercante called off the fight. In interviews after the fight, Cotto said "He was working on one leg, but I still kept fighting."[16]

When asked why he continued after injuring his leg, Foreman said: "I'm a world champion – now a former world champion – and you don't just quit ... A world champion needs to keep on fighting." A week after the fight, Foreman underwent surgery on his right knee to repair a torn ACL and Meniscus and to remove torn cartilage around his knee joint. The injury which had occurred when he was 15 years old, was aggravated during the bout. Foreman was told by doctors to take off for a year, but was boxing again nine months later.[17] On March 2, 2011, he battled Polish Light Middleweight boxer Pawel Wolak, and lost.[17] Shortly after the fight, Foreman said he wasn't sure if he was going to continue fighting or retire.[18]

After a 22-month layoff, Foreman was victorious in his return to the ring on Lou DiBella's Broadway Boxing card at BB Kings in Manhattan, New York on January 23, 2013.[19] Yuri won the 6-round bout by unanimous decision. On April 4, 2013, Foreman again emerged victorious by winning a six-round bout. He defeated Gundrick King by unanimous decision in the junior middleweight division at the Roseland Ballroom in NYC.

Foreman began teaching boxing classes in the famous Gleason's Gym in Brooklyn New York in 2020.[20]

Foreman, "the first Orthodox Jew to own a world title since Barney Ross held championships in two divisions in 1935",[21] is one of three top contemporary Jewish boxers. The others are Dmitry Salita (30–1–1),[22][23] a junior welterweight, and heavyweight Roman Greenberg (27–1–0).[3]

In the post-fight interview of his December 2007 win over Andrey Tsurkan, Foreman raised his hands and wished the television audience a happy Chanukah.[25] Foreman, who wears a Star of David on his boxing trunks, is an aspiring rabbi. "Boxing is sometimes spiritual in its own way", he said. "You have the physical and mental challenges in boxing, just like you have lots of challenges in exploring the different levels of Judaism. They are different but the same."[25]

Foreman studied the Talmud and Jewish mysticism in the morning, trains for boxing in the afternoon and attended rabbinical classes twice a week at the IYYUN Institute, a Jewish educational center in Gowanus. "Yuri is a very good student", said Rabbi DovBer Pinson, an author and lecturer who is Foreman's teacher. "Most people (in the class) who find out that he's a boxer are very surprised. He doesn't have that boxing personality, at least in the perception of what a boxer is. He's not the rough kid on the block. He's a sweet, easy-going kid."[25]

In 2014, Foreman was ordained as an Orthodox rabbi. He has stated that he intends to return to Israel and serve as a rabbi there, and occasionally leave Israel to box abroad.[26][27]

Foreman has appeared numerous times in nationally televised fights on ESPN, Showtime, HBO and Versus, and on talk shows such as Jimmy Kimmel Live!. He appeared in the film Fighting, which starred Channing Tatum and Terrence Howard.[25]

In 2018 Foreman was married to Shoshanna Hadassah.[6]

• List of Jews in sports#Boxing

• Boxing record for Yuri Foreman from BoxRec (registration required)