Fight fans attending tonight’s installment of Broadway Boxing in the Grand Ballroom of the Manhattan Center are in for a surprise. As one of the fighters walks to the ring for the main event, “Hava Nagila” will echo through the air.

Dmitriy Salita is a 22-year-old Orthodox Jew with pale skin and soft brown eyes. He was born in Odessa and moved to Brooklyn with his family in 1991. His father works as an inspector for the MTA. His older brother is a librarian at the Brooklyn Public Library.

Salita is articulate, soft-spoken, and polite. He graduated from James Madison High School in Brooklyn and is now a part-time student at Turo College. He’s also an undefeated professional fighter.

Salita’s journey in the sweet science began as a 90-pound 13-year-old. After being targeted by bullies once too often, he made his way to the Starrett City Boxing Club. There, an elderly black man named Jimmy O’Pharrow taught him to box.

“I seen every kind of kid come through the doors,” the 78-year-old O’Pharrow says today. “But I ain’t never seen one like Dmitriy. Kid looks Russian, prays Jewish, and fights black. Most of the places he went, he fought black and Hispanic kids. They’d look at this white boy and say, ‘Hell, I’ll kick his ass.’ Then, after the first round, they’d go back to their corner, thinking, ‘Damn, this ain’t going to be as easy as I thought.'”

Salita compiled an amateur record of 59-5; fighting at 139 pounds, he won the 2000 U.S. National Under-19 title and the 2001 New York Golden Gloves. Then he turned pro, and his record now stands at 19-0 with 11 knockouts.

“Dmitriy is a kid that’s hungry,” says Oscar Suarez, who oversees most of Salita’s training today. “He’s technically sound and very strong for his weight. He’ll develop more power as he matures, and he keeps improving.”

As for his religion, Salita takes it very seriously. He embraced Judaism after his mother was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1997. During one of her hospital stays, she shared a room with a woman whose husband was an active member of the Chabad Lubavitch congregation, and he directed Dmitriy to the local Chabad center. When Dmitriy’s mother died in January 1999, he began going to the Chabad center to pray for her. After a while, he sought to learn everything he could about the religion and adopted its rituals.

Salita does not fight on Shabbos, the Jewish Sabbath, which runs from sundown on Friday until sundown on Saturday. There are also 70 other days each calendar year on which he will not fight for religious reasons.

When Dmitriy has a fight scheduled for a Saturday night, he spends much of the day praying. But life can get complicated when he’s on the road, since he’s forbidden to use electricity during Shabbos. He can walk the halls or go to other parts of his hotel, but someone else has to press the elevator buttons.

Salita’s first pro fight in New York was an eight-round decision over Ruben Galvan in Brighton Beach on September 14. Tonight, he faces Paul Delgado (12-4-1, 2 KOs) in an eight round junior-welterweight bout. The question now is whether he can ascend from curiosity to world-class boxer.

“I’ve been waiting for a main-event fight in New York for a long time,” Salita says. “It’s important to me because I’m from Brooklyn. And if you want to build a fan base in New York, you have to fight in New York. There’s a certain star quality for fighters who can make it here. You know what they say. If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere.”

In the evening’s co-feature bout, Jeffrey Resto (17-2, 11 KOs) takes on Wilmer Torres (11-2, 5 KOs) in an eight round junior-welterweight contest. Six more fights are scheduled.

The Manhattan Center is located at 311 W. 34th Street. The first fight is at 7 p.m. Tickets are priced at $75, $50, and $35, with special VIP seating available.

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HBO has a nice offering on Saturday night in the form of a rematch between Winky Wright (47-3, 25 KOs) and Shane Mosley (39-3, 35 KOs). On March 13,Wright won a unanimous decision against Mosley to unify the WBC and WBA 154-pound titles.