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As he continues to make his mark on professional boxing, Dmitriy Salita thinks fitness programs at synagogues and youth centers can go beyond karate.

An Orthodox Jew with a 30-0-1 record in World Boxing Association competition, the 27-year-old Salita is working with Joel Levy, owner of the Family Martial Arts Academy in Highland Park, on a non-competitive boxing program planned to debut at the Joseph Kushner Hebrew Academy in West Orange this coming school year.

The fall season will also bring Salita's shot at the WBA light welterweight (140 lbs.) title, in a bout with current champion Amir Khan whose date has yet to be determined. After running a boxing boot camp with Levy at the Long Branch Police Athletic League Boxing Club July 19, Salita discussed his role as a Jewish celebrity and his mission of spreading his sport with The Jewish State.

"I feel that Jewish values are underrepresented in pop culture, so I try to do my part," Salita said in an interview. "I feel Judaism has a lot to offer."

Boxing hasn't been marketed in Jewish communities to this point because boxing clubs are usually located in bad neighborhoods in the inner cities, Salita said. Salita trains in the Starrett City section of Brooklyn, where he said his club helps keep troubled children off the streets while building their focus and harnessing their aggression.

"I hope to bring boxing to our [Jewish] community," Salita said. "I want them to learn, and get stronger and more confident."

That was also the goal at the three-hour workout in Long Branch, as Salita guided about 35 participants through elements of his daily training routine. The group began with stretching, jumping rope, and shadow boxing, before putting on gloves in the ring and by the punching bags for drills revolving around a series of three-minute rounds.

Salita explained that, "everything effective is simple." He taught the group how to slip a jab, block a left hook, and step back from their opponents while still going on the offensive. All great boxers have essentially the same practice routine and refine it through intense repetition, he said.

The training ended with a rigorous exercise regiment that included several flavors of pushups and the promise of "this is the last one" after nearly every drill. In a subsequent question and answer session, Salita spoke about everything from his childhood in Odessa, Ukraine, to his diet.

Salita, who is 5-foot-9, said his normal weight is 160 pounds, forcing him to lose 20 pounds before each match. He primarily eats carbohydrates on sparring days for energy, and protein when he doesn't box. Besides perseverance and hard work, Salita said one of his keys to success is the simple act of showing up to work.

"It's important just to show up sometimes," he said. "Just to show up in the gym, it puts you in the environment of the workout and the people around you get you going."

Regarding his mental preparation before fights, Salita said that his best prayers come before sparring, and that it's important to concentrate on what you have to do in that particular moment and understand that everybody is human and your opponent isn't "superman." Performing when a lot is on the line comes down to having an "optimal level of nervousness," he said.

"When you're in good shape and you did enough to get yourself ready, you are just nervous enough," Salita said.

As a Sabbath-observant Jew thrust into the spotlight, Salita acknowledged his unique path but said that because boxing is an ethnically driven sport, many fighters have a "novelty" to them and large fan bases from their respective cultures. Salita said his boxing education has been shaped by meeting fighters from different walks of life, and that his novelty factor would be irrelevant if he didn't produce in the ring.

Levy said he first became a fan of Salita in 2001, when Salita won the New York City Golden Gloves boxing tournament. He met Salita about five years ago at the house of a mutual friend in Highland Park, Effy Zinkin, who is the president of the Marc Ecko clothing line, one of Salita's sponsors. Levy said he often brings students to Salita's gym in Starrett City, but this workout was the best opportunity yet for Family Martial Arts participants to learn from the boxer on a personal level.

Besides learning fighting skills from Salita, Levy said he hoped his students would "see that what they do is so similar to what he does."

"Here he is, a world-class professional, and he is the most humble person you will ever meet," Levy said.

Jackie Atkins, who runs the Long Branch PAL Boxing Club, said that all great boxers she has met are humble, but that Salita seemed to her particularly mild mannered and soft spoken, to the point where she had to turn down the music in the gym just to hear him. This was the second event she has organized with Levy, the other a session to help her fighters prepare for the New Jersey Golden Gloves tournament in March.

"He's really relaxed and really technical," Atkins said of Salita. "A lot of times people think it takes a different type of person to be a boxer. But it's not just brawling. He puts a positive light on a competitive sport. I can teach my kids for the next couple of months about him."

Ari Goldring, who lives in Highland Park and trains at Family Marital Arts, said that the event was special for him because he could identify with Salita's story.

"Being an Orthodox Jew myself, I like what I've heard about him, how committed he is," Goldring said. "Judaism is my No. 1 thing and karate is my No. 1 hobby."