Muslim boxer, 18 and Jewish trainer, 72, unfazed by politica and religious differences

Last updated: Sunday, July 27, 2014, 1:21 AM
By STEVE POPPER
STAFF WRITER
The Record

This is not your typical boxing story. It’s not a story about a kid lifting himself from the streets or recovering from tragedy and making his way into the gym, where his fists now toil for good.

On a leafy street in Tenafly, you’d have a hard time imagining boxing even existed here. But you veer into a breezeway, through a door still marked for a fitness center that once occupied the space and descend the stairs, under a CVS pharmacy, and through another unmarked door. You find cement walls, a ring, a handful of speed bags and exercise equipment and you are in Ace’s Boxing.

And this is where Shahbaz "Ali" Choudhry, a 2014 graduate of Bergenfield High School and trainer Steve Bratter meet. The "Ali" has no connection to the boxing legend, Muhammad Ali, simply a middle name the 18-year-old Muslim from Pakistan goes by while he works with the 72-year-old retired Jewish New York City bus driver.

An odd place. An odd couple.

http://www.northjersey.com/sports/boxing/politics-religious-differences-never-enter-their-ring-1.1057816