Foreman close to becoming both a rabbi and a champion

By Ryan Greene

Friday, Nov. 13, 2009 | 2:30 a.m.

In the eyes of those around him, the fact that Yuri Foreman crunches more than 48 hours worth of commitment into each 24-hour day already makes the 29-year-old a champion.

On Saturday night, a victory over Daniel Santos (37-3-1) would make it official to everyone else, with the WBA super welterweight belt on the line at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.

Aside from dedicating each day to achieving that goal in the ring, he's also studying to become a rabbi.

At first glance, it's not the most common combination for a fighter to have in his arsenal.

"I study in the morning, then I go to the gym," he said. "I cover both spectrums — mental and then physical. It's kind of cool."

But the two regularly intertwine, and three years after religion became a major part of his life, Foreman (27-0) readily admits that.

"In rabbinical study, the subject, it requires so much brain activity, that you need a lot of focus, basically," he said. "And commitment, just like in anything you do, whether it's Jewish faith, which is 24-7, or it's striving to be a world champion, which is the same commitment, 24-7. So, basically, Judaism helps me in boxing in terms of being more focused, more channeled."

Foreman didn't always have this kind of balance.

His start in boxing came at the age of 7, when his mother, Irina, took him by the hand and brought him into a boxing gym to learn the sport to fend off bullies.

After his family immigrated from Belarus to Israel two years later, he spent his teenage years traveling into Arab villages with his friends to develop his tools and hone the craft.

"I was in Israel. I was a three-time national champion, but boxing there is at such a low level that I figured that I needed to either quit boxing or pursue my dreams, and I of course decided to pursue my dreams," he said. "All of the boxing is in America, and I decided to make my move."

At the age of 19 came that move to America.

"Yuri was like a baby thrown into New York City," said manager Murray Wilson. "He had no ties, and he's just a sweet kid. I took him in like a son, and I feel that way today."

Wilson — not an experienced manager, but rather just a lifelong boxing fan — discovered Foreman by reading a feature on him written in The New York Times when he was 7-0 and rising in the local boxing ranks. Already the owner of two successful Manhattan restaurants, Wilson took on a new business venture without looking for much capital gain out of the deal.

A Jewish man himself, Wilson and Foreman connected immediately.

"I thought he was being abused when he was first fighting," Wilson said. "I think he'd had six or seven fights, he was spinning his wheels and they weren't making any money or anything, so me and a schoolboy friend of mine for 55 years got involved, took it over and raised him like a puppy."

"Very rewarding personally."

But success in the ring alone wasn't enough after a while for Foreman.

Working a regular day in the garment industry at a local fabric store as a do-it-all employee, that combined with grueling workouts at night was beginning to take its toll.

"The fighting game and working and all this business outside of it, it was so overwhelming, that I needed some kind of spiritual pillar so I could be more confident, be more philosophical in some ways," he said of his epiphany. "The American dream, you work from nine until six and then you go to the boxing gym. Then I started getting a little bit drained. I needed some spiritual support. This is when I started exploring Judaism, the Jewish faith."

Foreman enrolled in the rabbinical program under rabbi DovBer Binson, which now consumes his days from roughly 9 a.m. until right after lunch. At that point, following his prayer and studies, he heads to the gym both focused and hungry. He also attends rabbinical classes twice a week at a Jewish educational center in Brooklyn.

He now maintains that without having found that spiritual balance along with his wife, Leyla — a former boxer who he met at the gym and now works as a filmmaker — he might not be where he is in the ring. The daily grind could have worn him down before getting a shot at a title.

Go figure, it took Foreman moving from Israel to America to get in touch with his religious roots.

Now, he keeps a kosher household. He observes the shabbos each Friday at sundown — the beginning of a day of rest — and his people know to tell promoters that a Friday night fight is out of the question. He even carries tzitzit — white threads — on his waist.

"I grew up pretty much secular in Israel," he said. "Only here in exile, should I say, I started exploring."

In roughly two years, his studies will be completed.

The breaking of myths, though, when people hear about Foreman's two seemingly opposite worlds, will never stop.

"Many people have stereotypes in terms of being a priest or a rabbi or a spiritual person and then doing something like boxing, which at first glance looks completely opposite," Foreman said. "For me, it's not opposite. I look at boxing as a more intellectual sport, and you can do basically both."

Foreman's reputation, no matter what happens this weekend, within the boxing world is on solid ground.

His name translates to English as George. He connected with the third of fighting legend George Foreman's sons — George Foreman III, also known as Monk — via Facebook in recent years. The Foreman family now refers to Yuri as the "seventh George Foreman," behind the elder George's five sons, all of whom are named after their father.

A victory on Saturday night would make him the first Jewish fighter in decades to hold a world title, and he may start being mentioned in the same conversations as legends such as Barney Ross and Benny Leonard.

There's the potential to become an icon back home in Israel, plus within the neighborhoods he calls home in New York City.

"Brooklyn is the closest thing to Jerusalem in the United States, really," he said with a laugh.

With that honor would come great responsibility. Now mentally and physically balanced, Foreman is ready to handle it.

"I think victory could put Jewish people on the boxing map," he said. "There's a lot of anti-semitism in the world, and they would see a Jewish person can be tough. We're not weak.

"Israel may be small, but it's mighty."