To Life!

SPOR TS

The Fight Game

Local builder takes his lifelong love
of boxing to the printer.

Alan Hitsky
Associate Editor

A

lien Rosenfeld may have
been the first Detroiter to
hear that an Orthodox
Jew had won a U.S. boxing cham-
pionship last month.
His nephew, former Detroiter
Terry Schiff of Chicago, was at
the New York bout and Rosenfeld
has been following the young
Dmitriy Salita's career (see "The
Orthodox Champ," facing page).
In fact, Rosenfeld has been fol-
lowing a lot of boxers' careers —
both Jews and non-Jews.
The semi-retired builder from
West Bloomfield has been
involved with boxing since a few

Allen Rosenfeld

scrapes as a kid in the old Dexter
neighborhood in Detroit.
As a teenager, he became an

amateur boxer, learning from
Lou Handler at Camp Tamakwa
and Nate Coleman at the Jewish
Community Center. He trained at
Gene Tunney's Boy's Club at 12th
and Fenkell. He even boxed in
the Army, finishing runner-up in
the novice 135-pound class at Ft.
Leonard Wood, Mo., in the early
1950s.
As a civilian, Rosenfeld took
his boxing interest in different
directions. He became a licensed
cornerman."I would be on TV
every Saturday night — in the
corners," he said. "I didn't know a
lot [about giving water and fix-
ing cuts], but I learned from the
others!'
He was an unofficial boxing

coach in the Army while serving
as a military policeman in New
Orleans and trained youngsters
in his basement back in Detroit.
But Rosenfeld's latest love for
the sport — his book — got its
early beginnings as a reporter.
At the age of 11, he started
calling Detroit newspaper
reporters to read them stories
out of boxing magazines. At age
13, Don Wattrick invited him
onto his half-time radio show at
a Detroit Lions-Washington
Redskins football game. At 18, he
worked as a reporter for Boxing
Illustrated, sending in results
from local fights.
In the 1960s, in the heady days
when Detroit's Kronk Gym had

six or seven champions,
Rosenfeld realized that Bert
Sugar's Ring Magazine didn't
have a reporter'in Michigan. He
called Sugar, got the "job" and
represented the magazine for a
number of years at local fights.
"All you got out of the deal was
tickets," Rosenfeld said, "but they
were ringside tickets. And you
got to hobnob" with the celebri-
ties. His wife, Ruth, would come
occasionally, but she didn't like
it very much. But at the time, it
was a very popular social event."
During down times in the
family building business,
Rosenfeld worked as an editor
for the Pontiac Press, the
Farmington Observer and other

((

The Fight Game on page 36

The Orthodox Champ

Dmitriy Salita was pushed
into boxing, just like a lot of
Jews in the 1920s and '30s.
Only Salita has taken the sport
a lot further than most.
The now 23-year-old was 8
when a boy called him a zhid in
his native Ukraine. He kicked
the boy in the groin.
After his family moved to
New York in 1991, Salita was
harassed by other youngsters
because he was white, Jewish
and an immigrant. His father
took him to a boxing club so
that he could learn to fight
properly.
On Aug. 25, at the
Manhattan Center in New York
City, the 5'9" 146-pound Salita
won the North American Boxing
Association junior welterweight
championship, defeating Shawn
"The Educator" Gallegos (15-
2, 5 knockouts).
Dmitriy "The Star of David"
Salita is 23-0, with 14 knock-
outs as a professional.
The young boxer prays daily
at the Chabad Center of
Flatbush. He keeps kosher and

a nti

September 29 2005

will not fight on the Sabbath.
In 2002, his mother died of
cancer. During her long hospital
stay, she shared a room with a
Lubavitch woman, who also
died. The woman's husband put
Dmitriy and his brother in con-
tact with a Lubavftch rabbi, who
visited the hospital room daily.
The two brothers began pray-
ing for their mother's recovery
every day at the Lubavitch
Center. After her death, they
continued going to say
Kaddish. Gradually, Dmitriy
became observant.
He was also training with
Jimmy O'Pharrow at Starrett
City Boxing Club, a predomi-
nantly black gym. O'Pharrow
says Salita "looks Russian,
prays Jewish and fights black."
O'Pharrow, who is black,
says Salita "had that European
style. He was a stand-up-
straight fighter. I changed him
to the American style he has
now — lean a little, slip to the
side, go down underneath the
punches, bobbing and weaving.
I taught him to fight like a

Dmitriy Salita lands a left against

Shawn Gallegos on Aug. 25.

black boy."
Salita has become a sensa-
tion in New York, appearing on
Russian-language and English
radio stations, When he was
introduced to the crowd Aug.

25, while being led in by
Chasidic reggae singer
Matisyahu, he was greeted with
a thunderous roar from his
Orthodox and Chassidic fans.
Salita won the fight by tech-

nical knockout in the ninth
round.

From Jerusalem Post and
Washington Post reports