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World Boxing Federation People: Abbas Sadeghi
POSTED ON JULY 19, 2019.
BY: WBF.
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FEATURE Photo: World Boxing Federation (WBF) Championship Committee Member & Kuwait Representative Abbas Sadeghi.
 
 

As is the case with any organization, effective and professional team-work behind the scenes is necessary to make the World Boxing Federation (WBF) run as smoothly as possible. Thankfully, the WBF has been able to attract a line-up of very astute boxing personalities to make sure of this.

Most people will agree that boxing should mainly be about the boxers. They deserve the spotlight and the accolades more than anyone, but it is still a fact that the sport needs qualified and capable people working behind the scenes to make things happen.

In the WBF People feature-series, we try to shed some light on the men and women who makes the World Boxing Federation what it is. WBF Championship Committee member Abbas Sadeghi from Kuwait takes center stage this time. 

  
  

While he is also the official World Boxing Federation (WBF) Kuwait representative, Abbas Sadeghi is actually originally from Iran, where he entered this world on May 22, 1973 in the western Asian country's capital of Tehran.

His mother a housewife and father a self-employed barber, both now retired, Abbas grew up in Tehran the only boy among five sisters.

Very early on in life he gained a keen interest in combat-sports, and practiced various martial arts since the age of only five.

Sadeghi never boxed competitively, but he trained boxing for years with some of the best Tehran had to offer, including one of the coaches of the Iranian national amateur team.

Like so many others around the world, his favorite fighters were Muhammad Ali and Mike Tyson.

Abbas has achieved black belts in Kick-Boxing (8th Dan), Karate (5th Dan) and Kung-Fu (Master), and earned several coaching grades in those sports before also becoming a boxing-instructor.

Outside the world of sports. Sadeghi owned his own business for ten years, selling spare parts for Mercedes Benz trucks in Tehran.

As Sadeghi got more and more involved with the administration of the sports he loved, he aspired to establish and grow professional boxing and martial arts in Iran.

But, not for a lack of trying, eventually the road-blocks got too big:

“Unfortunately professional boxing and martial arts got banned by the government in Iran, and we couldn't move forward as I had hoped and expected."

“I had many meetings with different Iranian sports authorities, hoping to get help with our plans to organize professional boxing and martial arts events, but nobody helped us, and I decided to move out of Iran."

In 2006 he relocated to Kuwait, to seek new opportunities, and has lived there since with wife Mojgan, a head nurse at the neurosurgery ward at Kuwait Hospital.

Teenage daughter Aryana was born shortly after Abbas and Mojgan had arrived and settled in Kuwait. Like her father, Aryana is a black belt in Karate.

With more than thirty-five years as an active athlete, trainer and administrator, Sadeghi has gained a lot of knowledge of combat-sports in countries where boxing is not yet really established.

Through some of his many contacts, at one point he started discussions with the World Boxing Federation, and was appointed a WBF Representative due to his experience in administrating within martial arts, but also due to his love of boxing and his enthusiasm.

Despite it being incredibly difficult, for various reasons, he continues to seek opportunities to arrange the first ever WBF title fights in Kuwait:

“Its very hard, but I have a plan and I am working hard to implement that plan”, explains Sadeghi. “Its all about hard work and patience, and at the same time being confident and responsible in what you do.”

“There is no big tradition for boxing here, but we have to keep going, and hopefully things will change for the better eventually.”

Saying there is no big tradition for boxing in Kuwait is no exaggeration.

According to BoxRec, there is only one professional boxing event ever recorded in Kuwait: Back in 1986, a couple of WBC title fights took place in Kuwait City.

Only two Kuwait-born boxers has ever turned professional, also according to BoxRec.

One is WBF International Cruiserweight Champion Ali Rami (13-1), who is based in Germany and claims Lebanese as his nationality, and the other is Heavyweight Adnan Yousef (4-3) who boxed in America in the mid nineties.

So its fair to say that Sadeghi has his work cut out for him!

But, just because its a long process getting WBF championship boxing off the ground in Kuwait, and therefore from the outside it may appear that Sadeghi is only on board in name, nothing could be further from the truth.

As mentioned, he works hard behind the scenes, and just recently he was appointed as a member of the championship committee, another testament to the high esteem he is held in.

Sadeghi is fully dedicated to professional combat sports, and besides the World Boxing Federation he is also involved with various martial arts organizations.

If anyone can help get professional championship boxing going in Kuwait, its almost certainly him.

As he likes to say, always choosing to be optimistic about the situation: “We just keep moving forward!”

Whatever happens in the future with boxing in Kuwait, and the WBF is confident that Sadeghi will be able to reach his goals there, he is a very valued member of the WBF family.

You can never have enough optimistic, positive and enthusiastic people such as him on your team!

  
 
 
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