36 | JULY 16 • 2020 

sports HIGHlights

NMLS#2289
brought to you in partnership with 

I

t’
s been a challenge for 
Dmitriy Salita to sur-
vive in the world of 
professional boxing as an 
Orthodox Jew.
He observes the Sabbath 
from sundown Friday to sun-
down Saturday.
That means no checking 
his phone, watching tele-
vision, surfing the internet 
or driving, no handling of 
money, and no boxing or 
watching boxing shows he’
s 
promoting during what’
s 
usually a busy time of the 
week in his profession.
“I’
ve always found a way 
to make it work,” said Salita, 
a former welterweight and 
junior welterweight boxer 
who retired from the ring in 
2013 to devote his full atten-
tion to Salita Promotions, 
which he launched in 2010.
These days, the 38-year-
old Southfield resident, who 
was born in Ukraine and 
moved to Brooklyn, N.Y., in 
1991 with his family when 
he was 9 to escape ram-
pant anti-Semitism, relies 
on his small staff at Salita 
Promotions to do what needs 
to get done while he’
s away.
He said he has full confi-
dence in his staff members’
 

abilities to fill in for him. As 
for paying his fighters, he’
s 
had to be creative to make 
sure they get paid on time.
Last year, Salita promot-
ed the biggest event in his 
company’
s history, a nation-
ally televised undisputed 
middleweight championship 
bout between undefeated 
fighters Claressa Shields and 

Christina Hammer, who are 
both promoted by Salita.
It was the first time that 
women headlined a Saturday 
night boxing card on the 
Showtime cable network. 
The show nearly filled a 
3,500-seat auditorium in 
Atlantic City, N.J.
Everything was continu-
ing to go well for Salita 
Promotions until March, 

when the COVID-19 pan-
demic shut down the sports 
world.
Salita hasn’
t presented a 
show since then. He’
s even 
temporarily closed his West 
Bloomfield office until he 
feels it’
s safe to open it again.
Among Salita’
s fight can-
cellations was a May 9 bout 
between Shields, a two-time 

Olympic gold medalist and 
world champion, and Marie-
Eve Dicaire in Shields’
 home-
town of Flint.
With Michigan slowly 
reopening, Salita has a plan 
for his next show.
He wants to put together 
a boxing card at the famous 
Kronk Gym in Detroit, hope-
fully by the end of August. It 
will be a made-for-television 

show, with no fans in atten-
dance.
He thinks the atmosphere 
will be more authentic and 
create more energy than 
the antiseptic shows being 
presented by ESPN from the 
fan-less MGM Grand in Las 
Vegas.
Salita has about 35 box-
ers in his stable, including 
Shields and former heavy-
weight title contender Otto 
Wallin.
The group also includes 
nearly a dozen boxers from 
former Soviet bloc countries 
who are being trained by 
Javan “SugarHill” Steward, 
nephew of the late fabled 
trainer Emanuel Steward, in 
the Kronk Gym.
“There are so many good 
boxers, world-class boxers, 
in gyms who just need to be 
recognized nationally,” Salita 
said. “That’
s especially true 
in Detroit. We’
re the come-
back city and home to world- 
champion boxers.”
Salita’
s YouTube channel, 
which gets 4 million views a 
month, includes “Train Like 
a Boxer” at-home workouts 
that he began posting in 
mid-April.
Salita had a 54-5 amateur 

Boxing has helped me with 
my Judaism, and Judaism has 
helped me with my boxing. 

 DMITRIY SALITA

Southfi
 eld resident Dmitriy Salita 
patiently waiting for pandemic to 
loosen its grip on professional sports

STEVE STEIN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

He’s a Boxing 
Promoter ... and 
an Orthodox Jew

continued on page 38

Dmitriy Salita connects 
in a bout against Ramon 
Montano at Boardwalk 
Hall in Atlantic City, N.J.

SALITA PROMOTIONS