Doron Zinman to Face Thabang Mofula

Doron "Buzzsaw" Zinman is scheduled to fight Thabang "Big Engine" Mofula at Big Top Arena in Carnival City, South Africa on April 18. Zinman is 3-0 with 1 KO. The 21 year old from Cape Town will be coming off of a nearly eleven-month layoff when he enters the ring.

Zinman is a shorter fighter, who likes to fight on the inside and trap his man against the ropes. He spent much of last summer training with Brandon Woods stateside in Las Vegas, Nevada. He's now back in South Africa working with Colin Nathan.

Mofula is 1-3 with one KO. From Orkney, Northwest, South Africa, he was an excellent amateur boxer last decade. The 28 year old won his debut eight years, but he has lost his last three. His career stalled after his second loss in 2020. He took a five-year layoff and fought again last year. Mofula, who has never been stopped, will be the most experienced opponent Zinman will have faced.

Zak-Dorodola Canceled

The cruiserweight clash between Yan Zak and Ola Dorodola has been canceled. The fight had been scheduled to take place on April 10 in Dubai, but the current war in the Middle East has grounded many flights out of Israel.

Israel and the United States attacked Iran on February 28, assassinating Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. While the U.S. and Israel continue to strike Iran, Iran and its allies have countered with strikes against Israel and several Arab nations. Several Iranian drone strikes have hit Dubai, where the government of the United Arab Emirates has arrested any citizen filming the destruction.

In an address to the country, U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to say today that the timeline for ending the war is "two-to-three weeks." Yesterday, he explained, "We're finishing the job, and I think within maybe two weeks, maybe a couple of days longer, to do the job."

But President Trump has shifted his timeline during this war. In early March, he said, "We projected four to five weeks, but we have capability to go far longer than that." On March 9, he said "I think the war is very complete, pretty much." He added, "We're very far ahead of schedule."

Eleven days later, President Trump reiterated, "I think we won. We've knocked out their Navy, their Air Force. We've knocked out their anti-aircraft. We've knocked out everything." On March 24, he said, "We've won this. This war has been won." And yet it persists.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu explained his timeline yesterday. "It's definitely beyond the halfway point," he said. "But I don't want to put a schedule on it."

As the war continues, Yan Zak and the other Israeli boxers sit on the sideline, which unfortunately has become an all-to-frequent occurrence since the attacks of October 7, 2023. Those attacks and the resulting conflict in Gaza understandably put boxing on the backburner. Last summer's twelve day war against Iran also caused a disruption for the boxers.

The military actions of the Israeli government since the October 7 attacks have been widely unpopular outside of the country. The global criticism of Israeli foreign policy has drifted into the realm of antisemitism at an alarming rate and negatively affected many Jewish boxers regardless of their position on the subject, from getting fights to experiencing verbal attacks online and in person.

When fighters can't get fights due to politics, it typically has to do with managerial and promotional contracts. But the recent history of the Jewish people can accurately be told through the lens of  boxing, and the events of the present are no exception.

The Harder They Fall

For 2026, the writer Andrew Rihn conjured up an informal book club called "Hitting the Books," consisting of four boxing-themed novels with the first being Budd Schulberg's The Harder They Fall.

Schulberg was raised in Hollywood and grew up a big boxing fan. His father, B.P., was a famous movie producer. Budd became friends with Jewish boxers Jackie Fields, Mushy Callahan, Newsboy Brown, and Maxie Rosenbloom among others.

First published in 1947, The Harder They Fall is loosely based on the career of former heavyweight champion Primo Carnera. Toro Molina is plucked from his job as a strongman in the circus back in Argentina and used by an amoral manager, Nick Latka, to enhance his bankroll. Unbeknownst to "the big bum," Molina's fights are all fixed and it's the job of the narrator, Eddie Lewis, to build up the fighter in the eyes of the public and the press.

Though explicitly Gentile, Lewis is at heart a Jewish character. A New York schmoozer, who constantly grapples with the morality of his occupation, he's always questioning himself and his surroundings. An aspiring playwright, Eddie feels more comfortable in the often contradictory world of boxing. By the end it's clear that he is nothing more than a schlemiel, destined to remain in the shady realm of pugilism.

The novel is littered with actual Jews, from Bummy Davis to Daniel Mendoza, Lew Tendler, Abe Attell, Callahan, and Benny Leonard. An Irishman named Danny McKeogh, who along with the Jewish hunchback Doc Zigman, train Toro Molina. The fictional McKeogh had been knocked out by Leonard in the first round and then became the trainer of Leonard's potential successor, Izzy Greenberg.

Schulberg's novel is immensely quotable and one of the less profound is about the fictional Greenberg, who traveled around the world fighting "the Australian champion, the Champion of England, the Champion of Europe, which is not as much trouble for Izzy as slicing Mazoth balls with a hot knife."

Danny is the impetus for an observation from Eddie, "There's nothing duller than an old ball player or an old tennis star, but an old fighter who's been punched around, spilled his blood freely for the fans' amusement only to wind up broke, battered and forgotten has the stuff of tragedy for me." It's hard not to concur.

Boxing is "a genuinely manly art, dragged down through the sewers of human greed," Eddie explains the thesis of the novel toward its end. It's a profound statement that still resonates today.

Though Schulberg published The Harder They Fall over 75 years ago, he sums up not only boxing, but the American political climate when he writes, "Hope is the blind mother of stupidity."

As Eddie tries to sell Toro Molina to the press, he encounters a skeptic and laments, "A historian yet! In every town you hit, there's always one jerk like that, the natural enemy of the press agent, the guy with integrity." For over fifteen years, the founder of The Jewish Boxing Blog has strived to be that jerk.

The next Hitting the Books entry is The Professional by W.C. Heinz.