Vafaei-Sani Faces Execution—Boxing’s Selective Activism Exposed
While boxing argues about pound-for-pound lists and Saudi mega-cards, Mohammad Javad Vafaei-Sani—a 30-year-old Iranian champion—waits in a Mashhad cell to be hanged.
Arrested in 2020 for joining anti-regime protests, Vafaei-Sani has spent five years in legal hell. His death sentence has been issued, overturned twice, and now reinstated. The Iranian Supreme Court just rejected his final appeal. His mother was granted an unexpected visit this week—in Iran’s grim judicial playbook, that’s usually the final goodbye.
The WBC has pleaded for his life. But the mega-promoters? The fighters with millions of followers? Silence. The Vafaei-Sani case exposes where athlete activism ends and business calculations begin.