July 8, 2009, - 10:22 am
Who Says Jews Are Weak?: A Fight I Wish I Could Attend
By Debbie Schlussel
I’m not in the New York/New Jersey area, and this fight likely starts before the Jewish Sabbath ends, but if those two problems weren’t the case, I’d be in the audience for this.
Spare Ran Nakash the metaphors that boxing is a war. Mr. Nakash, a burly cruiserweight who will box against William Bailey at Newark’s Prudential Center on Saturday, is chief commander of hand-to-hand combat instruction for the Israeli Defense Force. He’s trained thousands of soldiers in krav maga, an anything-goes street-fighting technique with minimal similarity to boxing. Still, Mr. Nakash is 18-0 with 14 knockouts and hopes someday to fight champ Tomasz Adamek, whose title defense versus. Bobby Gunn headlines the Newark card.
If you live in that area, Ran Nakash is offering free boxing and Krav Maga lessons tonight and tomorrow night for children aged 5-17 and having a meet and greet for all ages (I hope they have good security at these places).
Israeli Cruiserweight Boxing Champion Ran “The Jewish Warrior” Nakash will be at the Leon & Toby Cooperman JCC on Wednesday, July 8, 7:00pm to offer a free boxing and Krav Maga Clinic and to promote his upcoming fight at Prudential Center in Newark this Saturday, July 11th. Children and teens ages five to seventeen are encouraged to participate in the clinic in which Ran will demonstrate and teach various boxing and self-defense maneuvers. The clinic will be followed by a “Meet and Greet” where guests will have the opportunity to learn a little more about this “intense” fighter. His background is very interesting.
Nakash, who hails from Haifa, has a perfect professional record of 18-0 with 14 of those wins coming by knockout. He is trained in a number of martial arts including Muay-Thai, kick boxing, and karate. Nakash is also the Chief Instructor of the Israeli Defense Force’s Krav Maga Unit; making him Israel’s highest ranking authority on this form of hand-to-hand combat.
On Wednesday, the Leon & Toby Cooperman JCC Metrowest is located at 760 Northfield Avenue, West Orange, 973-530-3404.
On Thursday, July 9 at 7:00pm Nakash will offer a similar demonstration at the Jewish Enrichment Center, 38 West 13th Street, New York City, 646-486-0470.
More about Ran Nakash here. Also check out another site I like, J-Grit, the “Internet Index of Tough Jews.”
And on a related note, check out this postcard photo I saw on ebay, featuring Jewish U.S. Army soldiers who served in World War I (in the American Expeditionary Forces) celebrating a Passover Seder in 1919 in Paris after the war.
Deb:
Have you heard anything from or about Dimitry Salita in recent months? Wiki says he is likely to have a title fight coming up in October or November.
I regret that I lost track of Dimitry. So many sports; so little time.
Nonetheless, Dimitry is worth keeping an eye on. If you have solid news on his progress, I encourage you to share it here.
Regards,
TINSC
There is NO Santa Claus on July 8, 2009 at 1:01 pm