With a cut over his left eye and bruising under his right, aspiring rabbi Yuri Foreman could hardly stop smiling as he reflected on the reality of achieving a long-cherished dream.
The 28-year-old, who was born in Belarus, emigrated to Israel with his parents and is now based in Brooklyn, became the first Israeli to win a world title with a gutsy display in Las Vegas on Saturday.
A slick boxer who relies on technique rather than punching power, Foreman registered a unanimous points victory over Puerto Rican Daniel Santos to claim the WBA super welterweight crown.
“I have had many fights and each fight led me closer to this dream,” Foreman told reporters after improving his career record to a flawless 28-0 with eight knockouts. “When I got the title shot, I was really focused and it’s very satisfying because I have been dreaming about this since childhood. I am very, very proud to do this for Israel and Brooklyn and to show that Jews can fight.”
Foreman, who is a year from earning a degree in rabbinical studies, felt as if he was in a dream world shortly before the start of his 12-round bout at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.
“I was sitting in the dressing room and they told me in five minutes I am going into the ring,” he recalled. “I thought to myself: ‘Wow, in five minutes I am going to fight for the world title and I can win.’ That was a very surreal feeling.”
He went on to outbox his opponent and pile up the points, bludgeoning Santos to the floor late in the second round and again dropping the Puerto Rican with a right hand in the final round.
“I wasn’t really analyzing in my head,” Foreman said. “I just wanted to go from round to round and be in the moment. I didn’t think about being in control. By the 12th round, my corner said: ‘Three minutes and you’re world champion.’ And that was like: ‘Wow, just three minutes.’ And I tried to be very aggressive in that round too.”
Foreman took up boxing for self-defense as a young child growing up in Belarus after being bullied at the local swimming pool. He was 11 when his parents emigrated to Israel looking for a better life and four years later he resumed boxing.
He first began to explore Judaism when he was based in New York, doing so in partnership with his wife, filmmaker, model and former boxer Leyla Leidecker.
Despite pursuing two apparently contradictory occupations, Foreman relishes “multi-tasking” between boxing and his rabbinical studies.
“It just shows that you can do many things, you can be a world champion and you can be a rabbi,” he said. “You can be multi-tasking, you don’t have to follow the stereotypes. Boxing is my job, and I started boxing before I started to become a rabbi. Boxing is something I probably would not advise yeshiva [school] students to do but this is what I do.”
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