Timely switch revives Sierra Leone boxer Sara Haghighat-Joo’s career
Sara Haghighat-Joo was once a promising boxer coming up the ranks in Canadian boxing. Yet, in 2021, a chance conversation with her grandmother would change her career’s trajectory entirely.
After struggling to get through the system in her home country, where the national federation has been caught up in politics, and accusations of a toxic culture and harassment, her attempts to continue boxing by securing an Irish passport through her husband were faltering.
It was then when her grandmother would mention a generations-old heritage to Sierra Leone, that she shifted from representing North America to Africa to further her boxing dream.
Now boxing under Sierra Leone’s flag and federation, propped up by IBA’s financial aid to nations that are not funded through their national federation, ...