By Terence Dooley
Dmitriy Salita maintained his return to winning ways last weekend by defeating James Wayka in three rounds to claim the Vacant New York State welterweight title. Salita, Ukraine-born and Brooklyn-based, is 2-0 (1) since last December’s single stanza icing at the fists of Amir Khan.
The 28-year-old wants to gain a measure of revenge for the defeat by taking on another British boxer although his stated target, Manchester’s Ricky Hatton, is currently inactive due to a ban.
“I would like to fight in Israel, I would like to fight for a world title and I would like to fight Ricky Hatton since I read that he is planning a comeback,” revealed the Jewish fighter when speaking to Totally Jewish.com.
He added: “I would love to fight in Israel and it’s something that I'm working on. I think it would be a huge event. The shows that my company promoted in New York were successful and as an athlete and as a promoter, I'd like to put on a big and exciting show in Israel.
“I think it would be great to give the country of Israel worldwide publicity that has nothing to do with politics. I’d also want to do a great undercard with top fighters from around the world and am working in making this plan a reality soon.”
‘The Star of David’ is certainly setting himself a big target; Hatton has not fought since his May 2009 KO against Manny Pacquiao yet it is hard to envisage him losing to Salita as ‘The Hitman’ has only lost to the best – his two defeats coming against Manny and Floyd Mayweather.
Still, Salita is daring to dream. Certainly, the 32-1-1 (17) boxer made a good out-of-the-ring impression on his last visit to these shores – he will hope to ensure that his name is in the mix should Hatton regain his BBBoC boxing license and return for a final fling.
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