Dmitriy Salita

Dmitriy Salita Дмитрий Салита Дмитро Саліта
Salita (middle, with arm raised) in 2010
Statistics
Real name	Dmitriy Aleksandrovich Lekhtman
Nickname(s)	Star of David
Rated at	Light welterweight Welterweight
Height	5 ft 9 in (175 cm)
Reach	69 in (175 cm)
Nationality	American
Born	(1982-04-04) April 4, 1982 (age 34) Odessa, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union
Stance	Orthodox
Boxing record
Total fights	38
Wins	35
Wins by KO	18
Losses	2
Draws	1

Dmitriy Aleksandrovich Lekhtman (Russian: Дмитрий Салита; Ukrainian: Дмитро Саліта; born April 4, 1982), best known as Dmitriy Salita, is an American professional boxer and world title challenger. Born in Ukraine, he grew up in New York City from the age of nine. He resides in and fights out of Brooklyn, New York.

Salita is a practicing Orthodox Jew. He does not fight on the Sabbath or Jewish holidays and keeps kosher.

Dmitriy Aleksandrovich Lekhtman (later Salita) was born on April 4, 1982 in Odessa, in what was then the Ukrainian SSR of the Soviet Union (today Ukraine). He was five years old when he saw his first boxing match. "It was Mike Tyson, and I remember dancing around my room that night imitating the moves", he recalled. Salita's family moved to the United States when he was nine years old, citing antisemitism in Ukraine, and settled in Flatbush, Brooklyn. His father, Aleksandr Lekhtman, was an engineer; his mother, Lyudmila Salita, was an accountant. He has one brother, Mikhail.

His mother originally opposed her son's boxing, but eventually became an enthusiastic supporter. She died in January 1999, after a two-year battle with breast cancer. When she was hospitalized, Salita divided his time between James Madison High School, the Starrett gym, and Sloan Kettering Memorial Hospital. He said, "I'd spend the night sleeping in a chair at the hospital and wake up to do my roadwork." He became involved around this time with the Chabad movement. As a tribute to his mother, he uses her maiden name, Salita, as his professional name.