Maybe he’ll fare better in yeshiva than in the ring.
Yuri Foreman, boxer and aspiring rabbi, lost his first bout on Saturday night, the first defense of his World Boxing Association super welterweight title. Wearing a black brace on his right knee, a result of a previous injury, he slipped on the wet canvas in the seventh round and twisted the knee. Foreman fought on in pain, hobbled and limping, until the fight was stopped on a technical knockout in the ninth round.
A crowd of 20,273 watched the bout at Yankee Stadium, most cheering for Foreman’s opponent, Puerto Rican Miguel Cotto, who was ahead on points when the fight was stopped.
Many Israeli flags waved in the stands for Foreman, who was raised in Israel.
Belarus-born Foreman, 29, who is studying for the rabbinate at the Iyyun Institute in Gowanus, Brooklyn, declined to have the referee stop the bout when his knee buckled in the seventh and his corner appeared to have thrown in the towel. “A world champion needs to fight,” the bloodied Foreman said. “You just don’t quit.”
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