When Yuri Foreman soundly outpointed severely weight-drained Daniel Santos to win a junior middleweight world title in 2009 he became the first Orthodox Jew to win a world title in more than 70 years.
Since then, however, Foreman’s boxing career went straight downhill. In his first defense, in June 2010 at Yankee Stadium, Foreman suffered a severe knee injury in a ninth-round knockout loss to Miguel Cotto and he has not been a factor in boxing since.
He would lose his next bout by sixth-round knockout to Pawel Wolak and retire to continue his religious studies that eventually saw him become an ordained rabbi.
But Foreman, an immigrant from Belarus who lives in New York, made a comeback nearly two years later in 2013 and won four low-level bouts in a row. Then came another break, this one for 25 months, before Foreman won two more bouts against club-level opposition, one in December 2015 and another in June.
Yet despite zero fights of consequence since the loss to Wolak, Foreman -- thanks to the extreme generosity of the WBA, an organization that has often made a mockery of world titles -- finds himself in a position to reclaim the belt he once held.
Although a decisive underdog, Foreman (34-2, 10 KOs) will challenge 154-pound world titleholder Erislandy Lara for his belt in the main event of a Premier Boxing Champions card Friday night (Spike, 9 ET) at the Hialeah Park Racing & Casino in Miami, Florida.
"Being a rabbi, it is sometimes very interesting to mix that with fighting, but Friday night I won't be in rabbi mode. I will be all fighter. We are going to show skills and heart and power on Friday night." Yuri Foreman
"I came here to win and I feel very positive about this,” Foreman, 36, said at Wednesday’s final news conference. “Erislandy Lara is a great fighter, but me being from the Soviet Union, I'm very familiar with Cuban boxing and have quite a bit of experience with their style, so I'm looking forward to stepping in and showcasing my talents and skills.”
Lara, a 33-year-old Cuban defector living in Houston, will be making his fifth title defense. Foreman is yet another disappointing selection of opponent for Lara, who claims to want to fight the elite of a quality division but has instead defended against faded opponents such as Ishe Smith, Delvin Rodriguez and Jan Zaveck in bouts devoid of entertainment value.
Still, Lara did his best to take a rosy view of the match with Foreman.
"Yuri Foreman is a great fighter and a very smart fighter,” Lara said. “I am also a very smart fighter, so Friday night we're going to find out who is the smarter one in the ring. I feel great, very happy to be back in Miami in front of my Cuban and Latin fans. This is a great night for Miami and Spike and I plan on putting on a show and making a statement to the boxing world.”
Foreman, despite his religious convictions, made the decision to fight on a Friday night -- the Jewish Sabbath -- which is something he steadfastly declined to do previously in his career.
"Being a rabbi, it is sometimes very interesting to mix that with fighting, but Friday night I won't be in rabbi mode. I will be all fighter,” Foreman said. “We are going to show skills and heart and power on Friday night.”
In the scheduled 10-round co-feature, former super middleweight world titleholder Anthony Dirrell (29-1-1, 23 KOs), 32, of Flint, Michigan, will take on 21-year-old Norbert Nemesapati (24-4, 17 KOs), of Hungary. Dirrell has won two fights in a row since losing his world title by majority decision to Badou Jack in April 2015. Nemesapati has won three very low-level fights in a row since suffering a sixth-round knockout to contender Callum Smith in September.
Also on the telecast, Miguel Cruz (13-0, 11 KOs), 26, of Lake Mary, Florida, and Alex Martin (13-0, 5 KOs), 27, of Harvey, Illinois, will meet in a welterweight bout.