{"id":82910,"date":"2014-01-22T06:32:14","date_gmt":"2014-01-22T14:32:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?p=82910"},"modified":"2022-02-06T12:12:53","modified_gmt":"2022-02-06T20:12:53","slug":"report-jewish-rabbi-wins-his-first-mma-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/videos\/report-jewish-rabbi-wins-his-first-mma-fight\/","title":{"rendered":"Report: Jewish Rabbi Wins His First MMA Fight"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/nGSNEhXEu_s\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><br \/>\nAn Orthodox Jewish rabbi hadn&#8217;t thrown a punch in his life until he wanted to enter an amateur MMA fight.<\/p>\n<p>Yossi Eilfort&#8217;s journey began six months ago when he joined forces with MMA fighter and judo specialist Thierry Sokudju of Cameroon and started training at Team Quest Gym in Encinitas.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I never thought that a rabbi would be interested in fighting,&#8221; said Sokudju. &#8220;But I was stoked. He never quits.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Eilfort had 12 years of Krav Maga experience, a self-defense system developed for military in Israel, but wanted more experience with mixed martial arts fighting.<\/p>\n<p>Eilfort trained nearly every day while balancing his duties at Chabad at La Costa. He also trained on Fridays during the fasting period, but had to forego a last round of preparation for Shabat.<\/p>\n<p>The 22-year-old entered his first bout at Mansion Fights in a historic North Hollywood house and used the simple moniker &#8220;The Rabbi.&#8221; Before entering the octagon, he watched as a previous fighter was wheeled out on a gurney.<\/p>\n<p>Twenty friends, family and congregation members were on hand to see him swiftly take down his opponent. Eilfort won in the second round by TKO.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It was very uncomfortable hitting someone,&#8221; said Eilfort. &#8220;I actually held back, but I proved what I wanted.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Eilfort recently decided to continue his fights with the next one slated for January 26 in Thousand Oaks, Calif.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An Orthodox Jewish rabbi hadn&#8217;t thrown a punch in his life until he wanted to enter an amateur MMA fight. Yossi Eilfort&#8217;s journey began six months ago when he joined forces with MMA fighter and judo specialist Thierry Sokudju of Cameroon and started training at Team Quest Gym in Encinitas. &#8220;I never thought that a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2616,"featured_media":82912,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[2682],"tags":[7358,11,649,7359,15,16],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v19.7 (Yoast SEO v19.14) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Report: Jewish Rabbi Wins His First MMA Fight | BJPenn.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/videos\/report-jewish-rabbi-wins-his-first-mma-fight\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Report: Jewish Rabbi Wins His First MMA Fight | BJPenn.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"An Orthodox Jewish rabbi hadn&#8217;t thrown a punch in his life until he wanted to enter an amateur MMA fight. Yossi Eilfort&#8217;s journey began six months ago when he joined forces with MMA fighter and judo specialist Thierry Sokudju of Cameroon and started training at Team Quest Gym in Encinitas. &#8220;I never thought that a [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/videos\/report-jewish-rabbi-wins-his-first-mma-fight\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"| BJPenn.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bjpenn\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-01-22T14:32:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-02-06T20:12:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Screen-Shot-2014-01-21-at-8.37.31-PM.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"390\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"270\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"BJPENN.COM News\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@bjpenndotcom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@bjpenndotcom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"BJPENN.COM News\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/videos\/report-jewish-rabbi-wins-his-first-mma-fight\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/videos\/report-jewish-rabbi-wins-his-first-mma-fight\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"BJPENN.COM News\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/person\/c76eda1459929ee246658565d177d029\"},\"headline\":\"Report: Jewish Rabbi Wins His First MMA Fight\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-01-22T14:32:14+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-02-06T20:12:53+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/videos\/report-jewish-rabbi-wins-his-first-mma-fight\/\"},\"wordCount\":235,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"Jewish Fighters\",\"mma\",\"MMA NEWS\",\"Rabbi fighter\",\"ufc\",\"ufc news\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Videos\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/videos\/report-jewish-rabbi-wins-his-first-mma-fight\/#respond\"]}],\"copyrightYear\":\"2014\",\"copyrightHolder\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/videos\/report-jewish-rabbi-wins-his-first-mma-fight\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/videos\/report-jewish-rabbi-wins-his-first-mma-fight\/\",\"name\":\"Report: Jewish Rabbi Wins His First MMA Fight | BJPenn.com\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-01-22T14:32:14+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-02-06T20:12:53+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/videos\/report-jewish-rabbi-wins-his-first-mma-fight\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/videos\/report-jewish-rabbi-wins-his-first-mma-fight\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/videos\/report-jewish-rabbi-wins-his-first-mma-fight\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"MMA News\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Videos\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/videos\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":4,\"name\":\"Report: Jewish Rabbi Wins His First MMA Fight\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\",\"name\":\"| BJPenn.com\",\"description\":\"MMA &amp; 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