Ex-champ Yuri Foreman's journey back to the ring nearly complete

NEW YORK - The room is buzzing with boxers of all kinds - tall and short, male and female, young and old. Punching bags hang in abundance from the ceiling, industrial-sized fans blare from the corners, and the popping sound of gloves-to-pad are the beating pulse of the gym. The stench of sweat fills up the room on a late, hot summer day.

Tucked among the crowd of boxers is Yuri Foreman, standing, nondescriptly, in a white tank top and black shorts, training two novices. A pair of punching mitts envelope his hands as he calls out instructions of when to hit harder, when to hit quicker, and when to duck.

This is Foreman, a former WBA super welterweight champion, in all his glory. He wraps their hands in tape and he ties their gloves. He does pushups and squats with them. His personality bubbles with charisma - he smiles and jokes the whole time, even while pushing and prodding them to stay focused. In only 15 minutes spent learning the fundamentals of boxing from him, it's easy to understand why he's so well liked.

Afterwards, he steps out into the hot, muggy, noisy streets of downtown Manhattan and mentions that he's mulling a comeback from retirement. He's recently started sparring again, but he's nowhere close to the level at which he wants to be.

"It's humbling because everyone in the gym stops, turns and watches when I get in the ring," he says.

They know where's been. He knows where he's been.

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On Saturday, Foreman, Israel's first and only world boxing champion, will enter the ring on the undercard of the Daniel Jacobs-Peter Quillin middleweight title bout at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, just a few stops from where he lives. It will be his first fight in two years. To make matters more daunting, Foreman is no young buck anymore. At the age of 35, more than five years removed from being a world champion, he's closer to the end of his career than the beginning.

But Bruce Silverglade, an advisor to the young Israeli since the two met more than 15 years ago and the owner of Gleason's Gym where Forman trains, has no concerns about the layoff or his age. He's been monitoring Foreman (32-2, 9 KO's) very closely over the last six months and loves what he sees from him.

MORE: Barclays Center takes center stage

"For a boxer, he's on the older end, but he's kept himself in great shape" Silverglade said. "Physically he's in good shape and maybe, more importantly, mentally he's in good shape.

"Because of the way he boxes, he hasn't gotten hit much and he's kept his mind safe. Also, he's smart, he studies, and he goes to school. He does everything he can do to keep his mind sharp."

Foreman's comeback from retirement is another chapter to his "rags-to-riches" career, which has become familiar to many by now. From Belarus to Israel to Brooklyn, his journey hasn't been easy.

As a youth, he emigrated from Belarus to Israel. As a teenager in Israel, he trained in Arab gyms out of necessity, and eventually became a three-time national champion. As a 19-year-old young adult, he showed up in Brooklyn with no money and no family support, just a few bags of clothes under his arms looking for place to train. To keep his career afloat, he worked in the garment district.

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But Foreman had dreams, and he pursued them. He found friends, mentors, and spirituality. He boxed as an amateur then as a professional. He became a world champion, a rabbi, and a family man. He married the girl of his dreams then lost his manager, mentor, and good friend. He retired - not once, but twice.

And for as many headlines that Foreman has made inside the ring, he has made just as many outside of it. He has intertwined his path as a professional boxer with his path as an Orthodox Jew. He has tried to champion himself and the world, not just inside the ring but outside as well. Over the last 11 years, when he hasn't been dueling between the ropes, he's been immersing himself in Talmudic studies in the hopes of becoming a rabbi, a dream he actualized last year.

He seems to have accomplished everything in his professional life and in his personal life. There's not much left to prove. Except, he still has more left in the tank. He may be a rabbi, but that's not his narrative - deep down, he's a boxer. He "needs the routine," and that's why he wants back in. He's an athlete, and that competitive drive still ticks.

His most recent retirement in 2014 was due to a variety of issues: Physical fatigue, a bad contract and a jaded relationship with the boxing industry and the personalities in it. But all that time off hasn't stifled his talent. In fact, he's become smarter and more patient.

"He still has that desire to fight, and he's still good enough to go all the way," His trainer of 10 years, Pedro Saiz, said. "This is not just a one-fight comeback. He can still be a world champion."

It's not lost on Foreman that the fight is a day before Hanukkah, a time at which he said, "permeates with courage and strength." He hopes that the fight will help springboard him towards his goals of making it back into the top-10 and fighting for a championship soon.

"I'm not looking for a shortcut," Foreman said.

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Foreman's been known as the "Rabbi-Boxer" for nearly a decade now, but it's not who he is, it's just what he does. Label him a boxer or label him a rabbi, but in reality, he's just a man who knows himself and understands how he's going to impact the world.

He's a model husband and father. According to Silverglade, he's a role model to anyone who walks into the gym, no matter their ethnicity or gender.

"The biggest change you can bring to the world is to start with yourself," Foreman said. "My impact on the world, whatever that impact is, I want to bring awareness of spirituality to everyone. The bigger picture is having a connection with yourself and having a connection with something higher.

"We shouldn't be robots, we should think about our lives. We should think about our talents and how we're going express them to the world. It's important to pursue your dreams. I want to be a world champion. I want to set an example for the younger generation."

Since he's arrived in Brooklyn, many things have changed for Foreman, and still yet, some things haven't. He may not be the 19 year-old immigrant trying to make a name for himself anymore, but that hasn't stopped him from dreaming.