July 29, 2022
Three years after Iranian judoka Saeid Mollaei was forced to drop out of a tournament because he drew an Israeli opponent, Mollaei has finally faced that man on the mat and won.
Three years ago, Mollaei was ordered by his team manager to throw the match he was in so he would not have to face Israeli Sagi Muki. Mollaei resisted, but finally threw the match under threats. He then defected from Iran and was picked up by Mongolia. At the same time, he and Muki became great friends.
Mollaei has now shifted to Azerbaijan. And it was as an Azerbaijani that Mollaei faced Muki July 9 at the Budapest Grand Slam.
Mollaei won by immobilization in the third round of the tournament, and the two men hugged after the fight.
On his Instagram account, Muki welcomed a “victory of sport over politics” and praised “the ability of sport and friendship to bridge all the gaps.”
Mollaei responded, “Thank you brother.”
The story of the two judokas dates back to August 2019 during the Tokyo Worlds. Mollaei, world champion in the 81-kilo weight division was in the semifinals when Muki won the other semifinal match. A win by Mollaei would set up a final between Iran and Israel. The Islamic Republic does not allow that. A video of the match should Iran’s coach telling Mollaei in Farsi that he had to lose.
He threw the match but then also lost his fight for third place, finishing fifth.
The Israeli eventually won the gold medal and the Iranian Federation was suspended the following month when the videotape was translated.
Mollaei then went into exile in Germany, before changing his sporting nationality. First naturalized as Mongolian, he later took Azerbaijani nationality.