Ritual Slaughter
I’m not alone in hoping to see a better Jewish athlete than Shawn Green in my lifetime, but when the talented Orthodox Jewish boxer from Brooklyn Dmitriy Salita destroyed Fabian Luque (his over-matched, love-handled challenger from Tijuana) on Thursday night, my heart didn’t exactly beat to the strains of Hatikvah.
Salita easily knocked Luque down in the first and fourth rounds, and when the ref stopped the fight in the fifth, Salita’s beard-and-yarmulke fanbase exploded, waving Israeli flags and pumping their pasty fists in the air. Next to me, a couple of cigar-chewing types argued whether anyone with Salita’s undefeated record (28-0-1) should continue arranging fights with such tin cans: "Why not? He packs the house every time. What do you expect? It’s a business."
Sure, but what a shame if the kid who entered the boxing world as a reincarnation of the atypical Tough Jew, plays out his career more like—say—your typical shrewd businessman.
comments
submit a comment03.02.08 at 3:03 pm
Awww see, now I gotta come to this kids defense. I do it as a boxer, not a Jew.
This is what invariably happens when you earn a record such as his. People everywhere start pointing to a couple fights saying “that guy he fought was a bum”, he’s undefeated because he fights bums”. BULLSHIT. This kid has 200+ amateur fights, he won the NABA belt in what is BY FAR the most talent-rich weight division in the sport…Jr. Welterweight.
I’m not gonna say he’s a great champion, that has yet to be seen. He’s on the rise though and it’s not honest to point to one fight where his opponent was a little soggy around the middle and assume that he doesn’t deserve serious recognition for his record.
ALL BOXERS will take a fight with someone they know they can beat to pad their record (and a paycheck) and I’ll point out that is doesn’t always work out the way they plan. Mike Tyson (after he unified the titles) took the fight with James “Buster” Douglas in Kobe Japan because he KNEW he could beat him…Douglas took the fight knowing he was the underdog because he had everything to gain and it paid off when he knocked out Tyson the hard way. My point is, just because Luque was outclassed doesn’t mean that the fight couldn’t have gone the other way and then Luque would have beaten an undefeated fighter…BUT THAT WOULDN’T make him the better boxer. You wanna know why no one (but me) remembers Douglas? Because he LOST the belt immediately and Tyson won them back. With Dmitry there is every indication that if HE HAD lost that fight, he wouldn’t just disappear from the sport, he’d still be one of the most dangerous boxers out there. That is what really matters, not his record.
03.02.08 at 10:03 pm
Hesed, I definitely think Salita’s a good fighter— let’s not read between the lines. Even in dispatching someone like Luque (21-7-4, not undefeated, as you say), he was in great form, but that kind of fight doesn’t excite me— as a boxing fan or a Jew.
As for his reputation, this is the talk I heard from boxing managers and writers at the fight: there’s definitely skepticism about why Dmitriy left DiBella Boxing for a new promoter. Personally, I’d just be more interested in seeing him fight someone with comparable ability already; he’s definitely ready for it. Since writing this post, I’ve read that Salita has challenged Gavin Rees. That, I think we can agree, would be a fair fight.
03.03.08 at 10:03 am
There are two other major Jewish prospects in boxing right now, Yuri Foreman and Roman Greenberg. They along with Dmitriy Salita make up the holy Jewish trinity of Jewish boxers.
03.03.08 at 12:03 pm
Great call on linking the Barney Ross page. I was expecting Benny Leonard or Max Baer, but you picked the Chicago boy. Very nice.
03.03.08 at 4:03 pm
Max Baer wasn’t a Jew, just pretended to be one because it was such a popular sport among Jews.