Sara Haghighat-Joo

Sara Haghighat-Joo (born 17 June 1994) is a Canadian-Iranian-Sierra Leonean professional boxer who holds the WBA female light-flyweight World title (Regular version). As an amateur she was the first Sierra Leonean competitor to win a gold medal at the African Elite Boxing Championships.

Amateur career
Haghighat-Joo is a three-time Canadian amateur champion and has also won two Irish amateur titles. Having previously represented Canada on the international stage, she began boxing for Sierra Leone – qualifying through her grandparents – in 2020.

She was selected to take part in the light-flyweight division at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England, but was disqualified before her quarter-final bout with Uganda's Teddy Nakimuli after failing to make the required 50kg weight limit by a mere 0.1kg, something she blamed on a discrepancy between the test scales and the official scales.

In September 2022, Haghighat-Joo became the first Sierra Leonean to win a gold medal at the African Elite Boxing Championships when she defeated Algeria's Fatma Zohra Abdelkader in the bantamweight final in Maputo, Mozambique.

Professional career
After signing a promotional deal with Ontario-based United Promotions, she made her professional debut on 12 November 2022, securing a unanimous decision victory over Nayeli Verde at the CAA Centre in Brampton, Canada, in a fight streamed live on DAZN.

In just her fourth pro-fight, Haghighat-Joo claimed the WBA female World light-flyweight title (Regular version) beating defending champion Guadalupe Bautista by unanimous decision in Toronto, Canada, on 27 April 2024. Her victory made her the fastest professional world champion in Canadian boxing history.

Personal life
Haghighat-Joo's parents emigrated to Canada from Iran. She is fluent in Persian and studied Human Kinetics at the University of British Columbia before transferring to the University of Guelph when she switched boxing training bases. Haghighat-Joo is married to her coach Stevie Bailey.