Early Life
Foreman was born in Gomel, Belarus, then part of the Soviet Union. He started out as a swimmer, but his mother signed him up for boxing lessons at age seven after he experienced anti-Semitic bullying and beatings. At age nine, he emigrated with his family to Israel. Boxing was not popular in Israel and there were few boxing gyms so he trained at an Arab gym. On his early days in boxing, Foreman said:
The first time I walked in, I saw the stares. In their eyes, there was a lot of hatred. But I needed to box; and boy, did they all want to box me. After a while, the wall that was between us melted. We all wanted the same thing. I traveled with them as teammates. It helped that I won almost all the time. And finally, we became friends."
In Israel he became an amateur boxer and won three national boxing championships. In 1999, Foreman moved to Brooklyn, New York. He stated that the only reason he came to the United States was to pursue his dream of becoming a boxing career, and saw no further opportunity to do so in Israel. His first job was in the Garment District in Manhattan, where he made deliveries and swept the floors for a clothing store. At the same time, he began training at Gleason's Gym in Brooklyn, where he met his future wife, Leyla Leidecker, a Hungarian model and amateur boxer.
Read more about this topic: Yuri Foreman
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