Jewish Salita gets post-Shabbat victory on Calzaghe undercard

Ukrainian junior welterweight Dmitriy Salita struggled to an uninspiring unanimous decision.

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
boxing 298.88 (photo credit: )
boxing 298.88
(photo credit: )
Ukrainian junior welterweight Dmitriy Salita struggled to an uninspiring unanimous decision over American Derrick Campos on Saturday night on the undercard of Joe Calzaghe's fight against Roy Jones Jr. in a fight that was much closer than people expected. Salita (29-0-1) was supposed to fight WBA titleholder and countryman Andreas Kotelnik, but he backed out citing a rib injury, leaving the youngster to face Campos. An orthodox Jew fighting about four hours after sundown, Salita struggled to find his range. He finally landed a couple of hard blows on Campos (17-6), twice knocking his mouth piece out, but the victory was so lackluster that it left the crowd cheering for Campos. Later in the night, former undisputed welterweight champion Zab Judah overcame a pair of nasty cuts to unanimously outpoint Ernest Johnson, beginning his comeback Coming off a devastating loss to Joshua Clottey of Ghana that seems to have convinced Judah that he's best served moving back to junior welterweight. Judah dominated early but was cut badly over the right eye by an accidental head butt in the third round. Wiping blood from his face the rest of the way, Judah (37-6) seemed frustrated that he couldn't end the bout, talking to Johnson over perceived low blows and complaining to the referee. Finding success with lead right hands and short lefts, Judah finally put Johnson to the floor in the ninth round. Johnson hopped right up, but it was clear that Judah was coasting from there. To be fair, Johnson (18-3-1) was fighting against more than just Judah. He accepted the fight after on-again, off-again negotiations and wound up with just a couple of weeks to prepare. He'd never fought above 140 pounds before, and many believe he still isn't fully recovered from a shoulder injury that put him on the shelf for 26 months in his prime. Salita is a practicing orthodox Jew who moved with his family to Flatbush, Brooklyn from Odessa, Ukraine as a young boy. He started boxing at the age of 13 at the renowned Starrett City Boxing Club and trained with a number of top-notch fighters, including Judah. Salita, also known by some as the "Hammerin' Chabadnik", won a bronze medal representing New York at the Junior Olympics when he was 16-years-old and has always refused to fight on Shabbat in his career. He is known as a sharp, accurate and relentless puncher with good handspeed.