My dad, Solomon Perlo, died from acute myeloid leukemia in December of 2018. I'm fighting in his memory.

Before his AML, I can barely remember dad being sick a day in his life. He was always a strong, vital guy, doing some crazy workout of his own design. His leukemia was the first and last major illness of his life.

Dad had a long, hard fight with his cancer: 16 months of chemo, a stem cell transplant, and tons of time in the hospital before he died. I'm fighting to honor his memory and to help make sure that cancer gets KO'd, so other families don't have to go through what he did.

Yup, I'm a rabbi - you read that right - serving a community right here in Brooklyn. How is it that a rabbi is in a boxing match? Well, think less Mother Theresa and more From Dusk Til Dawn.

I'm kidding.

But it's all a fight, whether spiritual or physical. I'm here to align both those parts of my fighting spirit. I'm blessed with a beautiful family. My wife is an election rights lawyer (and I definitely don't recommend that you tangle with her), and we've got two young boys here in crown heights.

When I was still a college student, I'd been studying martial arts for six or so years already, and I fell in with an amazing guy, Leo Fong. Leo was a Chinese man who grew up in rural Arkansas in the fifties. Being so different at that time, he had no choice but to fight. Leo grew up into a hell of a boxer and an incredible martial artist. He was friends with Bruce Lee, and had his own following as a fighter. Later he became a pastor (you see where I'm coming from now), and was my spiritual mentor for year.

Leo lived til a ripe old age, healthy and strong the whole time, dying this past year. I also fight to honor my teacher.