Reigning Irish National Elite Bantamweight Champion Sara Haghighat-Joo made history for Sierra Leone last weekend.
The Canidian-born St Brigids fighter, who previously explored Irish Olympic options and now fights for the African country, was crowned at the African Elite Boxing Championships in Maputo.
Haghighat-Joo, who moved to Sierra Leone in 2020, won gold in the most recent installment of the continental contest, emerging atop the bantamweight field. Her final victory over Algerian Fatma Zohra Abdelkader ensured that she became the West African country’s first gold medalist at that level.
The 28-year-old moved to Ireland in recent years after marrying a man from Galway and was boxing at St Brigid’s club in Edenderry. She is the reigning Irish bantamweight champion and had hoped to force herself into the 2020 Olympic frame for Team Ireland, but now represents Sierra Leone, who have hired Liam Brereton from Offally as their boxing coach.
The win is also a feather in the cap for Brereton, who is just one of several Irish managers to find success abroad.
It’s also something of a consolation for the fighter, who was very frustrated that he was denied the chance to fight at the Commonwealth Games after a “weigh-in mix-up.”
