Salita’s Return to Ring to be Live on The Jewish Channel

Redemption is something that usually happens only to characters in movies. But sometimes it happens for athletes. The last time he was in the ring, Dmitriy Salita suffered a crushing first-round loss at the hands of Amir Khan in England. Next month, the boxer looks to get back to his winning ways at Oceana Hall in his hometown Brooklyn on September 1.

At a press conference at 5WPR in midtown Manhattan, CEO Ronn Torossian said the fight will be billed as “Redemption,” as it falls shortly before Yom Kippur, it’s the first venue Salita fought in, and will give Salita the opportunity to show he has what it takes to win.

Salita said he knows that given the loss and the lack of activity since the fight last December, he needs to prove a point.

“I definitely understand that I need to impress and put on a show and show that I’m back,” Salita said.

Salita, who was the subject of the documentary “Orthodox Stance,” and was featured on HBO’s Ring Life will have this fight televised on The Jewish Channel, marking the network’s first live sports program.

“When the New York Times did a story on us two years ago, they described us as the Jewish HBO,” said The Jewish Channel’s CEO Elie Singer. “The one thing everyone kept saying to us, the quip was of course, the one thing we’re never gonna have is Jewish sports…until today…We’re very excited at this very new opportunity to carry the upcoming fight and future fights hopefully as well.”

The fight will be promoted by O’Shea Bros. in conjunction with Salita, who said he will soon be officially promoting his own fights.

“I’ve been trying to get a fight together for a few months but there have been some difficulties,” Salita said. “So you know, I thought the best thing at that stage would be to put a fight together myself. It’s something that I wanted to do for a very long time.”

The orthodox fighter, who was undefeated before the loss to Khan, thanked God for his fan base and said he looked forward to fighting in a friendly venue. He added that he will be moving up the 147-pound weight class and wanted to show he could fight better at that weight. Salita said the fight was a first step and hoped in a few months he could fight at a bigger venue. Salita has sold-out Hammerstein Ballroom and fought on the Roy Jones Jr./Joe Calzaghe bill at Madison Square Garden.

Salita said he is no longer with square Ring Promotions, Jones Jr.’s agency. Salita had words of praise for Square Ring, which helped get him his coveted title shot against Khan.

Answering a question about a possible future bout against Paulie Malignaggi, Salita said it would be a draw.

I think Paulie being from New York, we both grew up together, I think it’s a natural New York fight…Paulie’s a very proven fighter.”

Khan defeated Malignaggi by TKO in the 11th round in May.

Moises Roman, of Universal Boxing Gym cited LL Cool J’s lyrics to the song “Mama Said Knock You Out,” in speaking about what he hoped would happen for Salita.

“I always said 2010, ‘don’t call it a comeback I’ve been here for years.’” He said. “We’re gonna do the best we can to get him up there to get another world title shot.”