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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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