Cletus Seldin (born September 11, 1986) is an American

professional boxer Professional boxing, or prizefighting, is regulated, sanctioned boxing. Professional boxing bouts are fought for a purse that is divided between the boxers as determined by contract. Most professional bouts are supervised by a regulatory autho ...

Early life

Seldin was born in East Yaphank, New York (part of

Shirley, New York Shirley is a hamlet (and census-designated place) in Suffolk County, New York, United States. At the 2010 census, the population of Shirley was 27,854. Shirley is the western terminus of Atlantic Crossing 1, a major submarine telecommunication ...

, on Long Island). He is

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

. He was named after former New York Yankee third baseman

Clete Boyer Cletis Leroy "Clete" Boyer (February 9, 1937 – June 4, 2007) was an American professional baseball third baseman — who occasionally played shortstop and second base — in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Kansas City Athletics (1955–57 ...

, who was a close friend of his grandparents. He grew up in Shirley. His father is Harry Seldin. His grandfather Lee Seldin headed a motorcycle club, the Dragons, in Bedford Stuyvesant in Brooklyn, New York, during the 1950s. At Longwood High School in

Middle Island, New York Middle Island is a hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) in the Town of Brookhaven, Suffolk County, New York, United States. The population was 10,483 at the 2010 census. It is situated between the hamlets of Coram and Ridge, to the west and e ...

, Seldin played

cornerback A cornerback (CB) is a member of the defensive backfield or secondary in gridiron football. Cornerbacks cover Wide receiver, receivers most of the time, but also blitz and defend against such Play from scrimmage, offensive running plays as sweep ...

and wide receiver on the Longwood Lions football team, which won the 2004 Long Island championship. He also wrestled and learned jiu jitsu. In his senior year he set the New York State deadlifting record for men weighing up to , by lifting . He later studied at Suffolk Community College.

Boxing career

Seldin's nickname is the Hebrew Hammer. He is trained and managed by Pete Brodsky, and promoted by Joe DeGuardia. Seldin wears a Star of David on his trunks, as did former Jewish boxers

Benny Leonard Benny Leonard (born Benjamin Leiner; April 7, 1896 – April 18, 1947) was a Jewish American professional boxer who held the world lightweight championship for eight years, from 1917 to 1925. Widely considered one of the all-time greats, he was ...

and

Barney Ross Barney Ross (born Dov-Ber "Beryl" David Rosofsky; December 23, 1909 – January 17, 1967) was an American professional boxer. Ross became a world champion in three weight divisions and was a decorated veteran of World War II. Early life Dov- ...

. "Remember the

Masada Masada ( he, מְצָדָה ', "fortress") is an ancient fortification in the Southern District of Israel situated on top of an isolated rock plateau, akin to a mesa. It is located on the eastern edge of the Judaean Desert, overlooking the D ...

", a reference to the legendary mass suicide of Jewish rebels under siege by Romans in AD 74, is stitched on the back of his jacket. He describes his style as "come forward and fight."

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). Th ...

boxing writer Dan Rafeal described him as "a fun fighter." Seldin began boxing as a professional in 2011, when he was 25 years old. In April 2013, he had surgery for a torn right

rotator cuff The rotator cuff is a group of muscles and their tendons that act to stabilize the human shoulder and allow for its extensive range of motion. Of the seven scapulohumeral muscles, four make up the rotator cuff. The four muscles are the supraspi ...

, labrum, and right hand. That was followed by nine months of recovery time. Seldin made his national television debut in July 2014 on ESPN against Bayan "the Mongolian Mongoose" Jargal (17–5–3, 11 knockouts) at the Paramount Theatre in

Huntington, Long Island Huntington is a hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) located within the Town of Huntington in Suffolk County, on the North Shore of Long Island, in New York, United States. The population was 18,406 at the 2010 census. The hamlet serves a ...

, New York. The fight ended as a "

no-contest ' is a legal term that comes from the Latin phrase for "I do not wish to contend". It is also referred to as a plea of no contest or no defense. In criminal trials in certain United States jurisdictions, it is a plea where the defendant neithe ...

" in the third round, as the ringside physician called the fight when Seldin head butted Jargal and caused a badly swollen-shut right eye. In December 2014, he again faced Jargal. Seldin defeated him by a

technical knockout A knockout (abbreviated to KO or K.O.) is a fight-ending, winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, muay thai, mixed martial arts, karate, some forms of taekwondo and other sports involving strikin ...

in the ninth round, winning the

World Boxing Council The World Boxing Council (WBC) is an international professional boxing organization. It is among the four major organizations which sanction professional boxing bouts, alongside the World Boxing Association (WBA), International Boxing Federation ...

International Silver Light Welterweight () title. He won with a technical knockout against Johnny Garcia (19–2–1, 11 KOs) on ESPN's ''

Friday Night Fights The cable television network ESPN has occasionally broadcast boxing events over the majority of its history, as part of several arrangements, including contracts with specific promotions and consortiums such as Golden Boy Promotions, Premier Box ...

'' on February 27, 2015, headlining as the

main event In sports, a card lists the matches taking place in a title match combat-sport event. Cards include a main event match and the undercard listing the rest of the matches. The undercard may be divided into a midcard and a lower card, according to ...

in a fight for Seldin's WBC title. The referee stopped the fight in the fifth round. Seldin brought his record to 16–0, with 13 knockouts, including knockouts in 12 of his last 13 fights. On June 20, 2015 Seldin defended his WBC International Silver junior welterweight title and brought his record to 17-0 with 14 knockouts, with a 4th-round main event TKO of Ranee Ganoy, who was 38-13-2 with 32 knockouts, at The Paramount. On April 6, 2017, Seldin tested positive for anabolic steroid use for a second time showing an increased level of testosterone and anabolic steroid Stanozolol also known as Winstrol , which forced his June 15 fight to be canceled. His testosterone to

epitestosterone Epitestosterone, or isotestosterone, also known as 17α-testosterone or as androst-4-en-17α-ol-3-one, is an endogenous steroid and an epimer of the androgen sex hormone testosterone. It is a weak competitive antagonist of the androgen recepto ...

ratio (T/E) was 21.02 to 1, which far exceeded the allowable threshold of 4 to 1 under World Anti-Doping Agency standards. The WBC ruled that Seldin was suspended from participating in any WBC-sanctioned bouts for six months, or until Aug. 1, 2017, and that VADA would design a specific random testing protocol for Seldin at his own cost that would go on for one year. On November 11, 2017, Seldin made his HBO Boxing debut fighting and winning in a third-round TKO against Roberto Ortiz, resulting in Ortiz's second-ever loss. Seldin's record improved to 21-0 with 17 knockouts. He is the reigning Super Lightweight Champion of the North American Boxing Association; in 2020 he broke his own record by winning 25 of 26 fights, with 21 knockouts, when he fought Luis Florez. On October 16, 2021, in the main event at TrillerVerz at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, NY, he knocked out Brazil's Willam Silva in the seventh round.

Personal life

Seldin resides in Long Island.

Professional boxing record

References

External links