Amir Khan v Dmitriy Salita: Is this guy a real-life Rocky?

Boxing Betting / Ralph Ellis / 27 November 2009 / Leave a Comment

Dmitriy Salita took up karate to defend himself against bullying as a kid in the sort of plot that you'd expect to find in a Hollywood film.

"Salita might have ducked his first chance of a movie role, but he had no problems getting into character on his first day’s work in England yesterday promoting the fight with Khan. He’s pictured in this morning’s Sun in the classic “Rocky” movie pose punching a side of beef that was hanging in the giant freezers out the back of North London’s Kosher Deli."

We don't know too much about Amir Khan's next opponent Dmitriy Salita in Great Britain but we do know that his record is a lot better than the odds on Betfair would have you believe, says Ralph Ellis.

Dmitriy Salita was once offered big money to appear in an HBO Boxing film playing one of the fighters who would lose to the hero. He turned it down. "It was tempting," he said. "But I didn't want a load of people who had never seen me fight, and knew nothing about me, to only ever see me lose."

There are plenty who think that the 27-year-old will fall into exactly that category when he steps into the ring with Amir Khan next Saturday night. He's arrived in England relatively unknown despite a 30 bout unbeaten record, and has hardly even been seen on TV over here before. And it's certainly what the Bolton fighter's camp had in mind when they set up their man's first defence of his WBA light-welterweight crown. Betfair's punters are pretty convinced of it too with Khan as short as [1.19] to win and [1.63] to do it inside the distance.

But then Khan was being offered at a similar price way back in September 2008 before he fought Breidis Prescott and we all know what happened 54 seconds into that fight. That was all it took for Prescott to knock Khan down not once, but twice, and the Brit has had a question mark over his ability to take a punch ever since.

Salita might have ducked his first chance of a movie role, but he had no problems getting into character on his first day's work in England yesterday promoting the fight with Khan. He's pictured in this morning's Sun in the classic "Rocky" movie pose punching a side of beef that was hanging in the giant freezers out the back of North London's Kosher Deli.

And he's also talked to the Daily Telegraph about his plans - and his belief, inspired by that Prescott battering - that Khan is "chinny" when it comes to getting caught by a big hit. "There is nothing he can do about it, so being knocked out is always going to be an issue for him," he says.

A look at Salita's unbeaten record across 30 fights leaves you thinking there's even more need of caution before you go backing the Bolton fighter at such short odds. He's finished more than half of his wins inside the distance, and every points verdict in his favour has been unanimous. The only blemish on his record was a draw against Mexican Ramon Montano back in March of 2006.

There's no doubting Khan's talent. He has sensational hand speed, and the defeat to Prescott gave him a work ethic and hunger to be champion which has seen him imrove his game. But there's always that worry about what one good punch could do to him, and just like Rocky always upset the odds in those movies, it would be very dangerous to think that Salita couldn't come up with the same sort of shock. As I said, we don't know much about Salita. Backing Khan at [1.19] could be a very expensive way to find out.

Five things you might not know about Dmitriy Salita

1.Born in Odessa in the Ukraine, his real name is Dmitry Alexandrovich Lekhtman but he took his mother's maiden name when he became a professional fighter

2. His father Aleksander moved the family to Brooklyn when he was aged nine to escape anti Jewish persecution. When he was then bullied at school because he still wore Russian clothes, he took up karate to protect himself

3. He took up boxing aged 13, and three years later won a bronze medal representing New York at the Junior Olympics. He turned pro in 2001

4. He lost his Mum Lyudmila, who had been an accountant, in 1999 after she'd fought a two-year battle against breast cancer.

5. He spends his downtime reading books about history - current favourite is '102 minutes', an account of what happened inside the Twin Towers between the first plane hitting and the buildings collapsing.