Three Jewish Fighters in Action Tomorrow

Mikhael Ostroumov, Igor Lazarev, and Sagiv Ismailov are all scheduled to fight tomorrow, December 10. Lazarev and Ismailov will battle in separate bouts in Istanbul, Turkey. Ostroumov will fight in Vladikavkaz, Russia.

Super Middleweight Ostroumov is scheduled to face Evgenii Tershukov in  a stay-busy fight. Tershukov is a 5' 11 and a half inch 26 year old from Verhnya Pyshma, Russia. He is a ten-fight veteran, but all ten of those contests were losses. He has been stopped four times. He has only fought two opponents with more than three fights of experience. Ostroumov (2-0-1 one KO) has been in tough in his early career. His debut was against a 46-fight veteran while his second one was against a 5-0 prospect. The latter was scored a draw, but Ostroumov deserved to win. He is also scheduled to fight Konstantin Piternov, a 46-fight veteran, on December 24.

Lightweight Igor Lazarev is slated to fight Hakan Ozdermir, a 27-year old from Turkey. Ozdermir weighed 123 pounds when he got knocked out last February in his only career pro fight. Lazarev is coming off of his lone career loss, a second round stoppage at the hands of Binali Shakhmandarov in September. The 34 year old is 6-1 with two KOs.

Super Middleweight Sagiv Ismailov is penciled in to fight Merdan Khudaykuliyev, a native of Turkmenistan. Khudaykuliyev isn't yet listed on BoxRec, so it's possible this is his pro debut. A fighter by that name made it to the semis of the 2017 Turkmenistan Junior National Championships at a much lower weight. A Merdan Khudaykuliyev can be found on social media showing off his impressive biceps and is listed as 25 years old. But who knows? For his part, Ismailov, an 18 year old from Bnei Ayish, Israel, scored a second round TKO victory in his debut in September.

The two fights in Turkey are scheduled for four rounds while Ostroumov's bout is for six.

Yuri Foreman Wins Comeback Fight

Rabbi Yuri Foreman defeated Jeremy Ramos at the Kentucky Center for African American Heritage in Louisville tonight. The former world champion last fought nearly four years ago and earned his first win in four and a half years.

Foreman, who is 40 years old, showed impressive speed and quickness. He landed overhand rights from the outside and leaping left hooks throughout the fight. Ramos, who is seven years younger than Yuri, wanted to counter, but he couldn't catch Foreman. He soon changed tactics and tried to rush in with combinations every once in a while. Ramos, a Colorado resident, was lucky to merely miss; most of Jeremy's charges resulted in Foreman counters which were the Brooklyn resident's hardest punches of the contest.

The first round was as slow as you would expect when a mover and a counterpuncher meet. It served as the textbook definition of a feel-out round. Yuri found his timing and distance in the second. He feinted effectively and used his foot and hand speed to land a couple of eye-catching left hooks and overhand rights. He disguised his punches well. One punch looked like a left hook until it became something in between a hook and an uppercut before snapping back Ramos's head.

Yuri put on a boxing clinic in the third and fourth rounds. Ramos was unsure of what to do. He couldn't catch Foreman, so he bounced and swirled his hands defensively in center ring waiting to be hit.

The fifth and sixth were slower rounds. Ramos landed a left hook and a right in the fifth for two of his rare connects. He briefly switched to southpaw in the sixth which served to halt Foreman's offense.  While Yuri's punch output decreased in the sixth, Ramos continued to improve his activity. He caught Yuri on the ropes and landed a right in the stanza. Both rounds were close.

Foreman took the fight back in the seventh. He landed a nice counter right and a right from the outside in the round. Foreman took the eighth with his jab. His movement was crisp throughout the fight, forcing Ramos to miss until the end. Even at the end he looked fresh, and if his skills have eroded, you couldn't tell it in this fight.

Foreman won the eight-round affair by split decision. The judges' cards were 77-75 twice for Yuri while one judge had it 77-75 for Ramos. The Jewish Boxing Blog scored the fight 78-74 for Foreman. Simply put, the card for Ramos did not reflect the fight. The first, fifth, and sixth were close and those three rounds were the only ones that could conceivably go to Ramos. Ramos did try to steal some rounds in the waning seconds, but only a novice judge should have been convinced by the effort. Raashaan Myers and Haven Harrington, the announcers of the fight, scored it 79-73 for Foreman.

Foreman's record improves to 35-3 with 10 KOs. Ramos is now 11-10 with 4 KOs.

Yuri Foreman to Return Next Month

Rabbi Yuri Foreman is scheduled to fight Jeremy Ramos on December 5 at the Kentucky Center for  African American Heritage in Louisville. Foreman, who is unquestionably the best Jewish boxer of his generation, will enter the ring for the first time in nearly four years.

Foreman (34-3, 10 KOs) won the WBA junior middleweight championship in 2009. All three of his losses have been to world class competition. He lost his title in 2010 to future Hall of Famer Miguel Cotto when Yuri tore his ACL. He lost to Pawel Wolak just nine months after that devastating injury. In his last fight, on January 13, 2017, he fell to Erislandy Lara. Lara held two junior middleweight belts and was considered a top ten pound-for-pound fighter at the time.

An old maxim is a boxer's punch is the last thing to go. Foreman, who turned 40 years old in August, is a mover not a puncher. Typically the best older fighters resemble Yuri's namesake, George Foreman, who punched like a mule and possessed a chin of granite on his way to capture the heavyweight championship of the world at the age of 45. Yuri doesn't have a style that typically lends itself to success at an advanced age, but these days 40 is the new 30 in boxing. Another Yuri, Yuriorkis Gamboa, relies on quick reflexes but as he pushes 40, he has remained competitive with some of the best in the sport. In December, Gamboa made it into the 12th against a top ten pound-for-pound foe Gervonta Davis, and last Saturday he went the distance with one of boxing's brightest young stars, Devin Haney. 

Jeremy Ramos is a barber that sports a record of 11-9 with 4 KOs. Yet the Puerto Rican native based in Colorado is much better than his record and alternate profession suggest. He's had a Dickensian boxing career thus far. After winning nine of his first ten bouts, he has lost eight of his last ten, including his last three. Recently, Ramos is the type of fighter who does just enough to lose nearly every round close. That's what he did last year against undefeated prospects Alex Rincon and the late Travell Mazion, who tragically died in car accident this summer. Ramos was competitive this summer against Shane Mosley Jr., the son of the legend, though he was shutout on two of the judges' cards.

Ramos, who is 33 years old, has fought against an opponent with a winning record in all but four of his 20 fights. His best win was his last one, a unanimous decision victory in March of 2019 against Neeco Macias. Macias, who was 17-1 at the time, was known for throwing hundreds of punches a round. Ramos sent the Rooster into retirement. In Foreman, Ramos couldn't face a fighter with a style more different than Macias. Macias stood in front of his opponents constantly firing shots without the slightest concern for defense. Foreman is the consummate boxer.  Yuri will try to avoid duplicating the performance of Jamar Freeman, the last pure boxer Ramos fought. In their 2017 clash, Ramos outhustled Freeman, who didn't do much more than offer the occasional jab in losing a unanimous decision to Ramos in Jamar's home state.

In his prime, Foreman would likely box circles around a game Ramos. But, even more than his age, Foreman's inactivity may prohibit him from returning to his peak. Ramos has fought six times with a 21-month layoff sprinkled in since Foreman last participated in a prize fight. In fact, Yuri has fought only three times in the past seven years. But he has been steadily training and has been enrolled in the Voluntary Anti-Doping Association for the past couple of years- something every boxer should do- an indication of his seriousness in returning to the ring. Ramos is a perfect test for Foreman at this stage. Jeremy has only lost to fighters who are a level below world class, so if Yuri wins in impressive fashion, we'll know this comeback is serious. But it won't be easy.

The rabbi and the barber are slated to tussle in an eight round affair.