Brooklyn boxer Yuri Foreman has gorgeous pugilist wife in his corner
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They're the Brangelina of boxing and are about to make history.
Hunky fighter Yuri Foreman will have some amazing inspiration at his side when he takes on three-time world champ Miguel Cotto at Yankee Stadium - his model-turned-boxer wife.
"It helps to have a wife who knows your job," Foreman said of 5-foot-9 stunner Leyla Leidecker, whose A-list good looks come paired with her own award-winning jabs. "It doesn't hurt that she used to be a model."
Foreman, 29, will defend his super welterweight crown against Cotto at the new ballpark - the first boxing match the Yanks have hosted since the Muhammad Ali-Ken Norton bout in 1976.
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The June 5 bout isn't his first milestone: In November, he became the first Orthodox Jew to win a world title since junior welterweight Jackie (Kid) Berg in 1932.
The pressure isn't getting to the Brooklyn lovebirds. "It is just like any other fight," Foreman said. "A new opportunity. A new challenge to defend your title."
"I expect him to be victorious. He has all the tools to win the fight," Leidecker said.
The blond Hungarian-born beauty helps her hubby with good advice - and some muscle-building meals.
"Sometimes he forgets to eat. He must eat protein," she said.
"I bought 18 pounds of grass-fed kosher meat. It is a big chunk of meat," she quipped.
"She's been boxing; she knows what I need," Foreman said.
The two met at Gleason's Gym in DUMBO nine years ago.
Leidecker, a 2004 Metro New York boxing champ, sparred with Hilary Swank to help prepare the actress for the Academy Award-winning film "Million Dollar Baby."
Foreman and Leidecker even traded jabs up until Leidecker left the sport to direct documentaries, but it wasn't much fun, she admitted. "We are not the same size," she said. He's 154 pounds, and she's just 125 pounds. "I like to spar with guys who are smaller. It is hard to spar with someone much bigger," she said.
Her film, "Golden Gloves," about female fighters in the annual Daily News-sponsored amateur boxing competition, debuted in 2007.
When he is not in the ring and she is not behind a camera, the two are at synagogue or at a Sabbath meal near their Boreum Hill home. Religious naysayers say Foreman, who is studying to become a rabbi, should not make money from beating people up.
Foreman disagreed: "They say you can't hurt thy fellow man. Let's say the other person agrees to it? It is entertainment."
Foreman's trainer, Joe Grier, is glad there is some Torah in the ring. "Faith plays a tremendous role in what he does. It allows him to believe in himself," Grier said.
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