Dmitriy Salita to Fight for World Championship

The World Boxing Association (WBA) has announced that Junior welterweight stalwart, Dmitriy Salita, an observant Jew, is to fight for the WBA light-welterweight title in December. Unbeaten Salita is to fight Amir Khan for the title. Khan is an English-born Muslim who won a silver medal at the 2004 Olympics.

Although Salita’s family was not observant, he found Judaism when he met a Chabad member in the hospital where his mother was dying of breast cancer. Ukrainian-born Salita wears a kippa and refuses to fight on the Jewish Sabbath, which means no Friday night fights.