Foreman’s Amazing Journey

Las Vegas, Nev.–“Foreman, you’re next.” Those three words came down on super welterweight YURI FOREMAN like an anvil on his head. His friend had just been knocked out, and Foreman was waiting-and, yeah, dreading-his own impending bout.

“There’s a lot of pressure,” Foreman told an audience of life as a professional boxer March 8 at the Mandalay Bay. The roughly 1,000 guests were gathered for the TribeFest, an annual confab celebrating Jewish culture. Many of them had doubtlessly never worked a heavy bag, let alone stepped into the ring while a stadium thundered.

Perhaps realizing this fact, Foreman connected his story of ring life to one of regular life. No matter how scared you are, the rabbinical student turned prize fighter added, “You still have to perform.”

Message delivered–and accepted with applause.

Foreman knows a lot about performing under the weight of fear. In November 2009, he beat the odds to become the first Israeli world champion, out-pointing the bigger, stronger Puerto Rican Daniel Santos. It was the fulfillment of a dream for Foreman–one that has its origins in his boyhood in the former Soviet satellite of Belarus.

As one can imagine, growing up behind the Iron Curtain made fighting for the 154-pound title look like a trip to the candy store. Ironically, however, it was the constant bullying Foreman endured in the Eastern European country that led to his career in boxing.

“My mom, like many Jewish women, was wearing the pants in the family,” Foreman said to chuckles of agreement. She told the seven-year-old that he needed to learn how to box so he could defend himself. Naturally, Foreman agreed without hesitation.

Off to the gym he went–and stayed.

That initial sojourn eventually paid off in a major way, of course. But the sting of the prejudice Foreman endured in Belarus still lingers, even if it bubbles well bellow the surface of the 30-year-old’s affable nature.

“Being Jewish in the Soviet Union was not a prestige position,” he said with characteristic understatement. “You will not get the best job.”

So, Foreman’s family immigrated to Israel, where he found yet more difficulty. In addition to being a stranger in a strange land (“Being an immigrant in any country is not the easiest thing,” he said, as if that summed up the tribulations of his experience), he couldn’t find a boxing gym nearby. The only ones available were in a nearby Arab village.

Needless to say, for a young Jewish kid, that presented a problem. But the size of that problem, both literally and figuratively, remained unclear until his first sparring match at his new gym. “They put me against a strong kid,” he recalled. “He tried to take my head off.”

Foreman kept his head and continued training at same gym–many of the Arab fighters now his friends–until he moved to New York City. There, he “started to work on my American dream.”  

With the help of a religious awakening, Foreman, who’s now studying to be a rabbi in between matches, achieved that dream. A happy ending? Sort of. Last year, he lost his title to Puerto Rican superstarMIGUEL COTTO.

But when he meets PAWEL WOLAK March 12 at the MGM, Foreman will once again do what he does best: fight inside the pressure cooker.