NEW YORK — Restaurateur and boxing manager Murray Wilson, who helped junior middleweight Yuri Foreman become a world champion, died Wednesday, apparently of a heart attack, his publicist said in an e-mail.
He was 72.
The man behind Campagnola, a popular Italian restaurant in New York City, Mr. Wilson recently became involved in boxing after he read a New York Times article about Foreman, an aspiring rabbi.
Mr. Wilson met Foreman and eventually bought out his contract and became his manager.
He guided Foreman to a 154-pound title last November, when the young fighter became the first Orthodox Jew in 70 years to win a boxing world championship.
He landed Foreman a lucrative payday for a fight against Miguel Cotto in June, the first fight at Yankee Stadium in more than three decades.