Sarah Mahfoud was born in 1989 in Thorshavn, Faroe Islands and posesses a fascinatingly eclectic family background. Her father is Syrian and her mother is a native of the Faroe Islands, a self-governing and geographically remote island chain with only 50.000 people located in the North Atlantic. [Top photo:  Photo credit Facebook].

Copyrighted photos:  Promoter, Bettina Palle

The former IBF world featherweight champion comes from a strong athletic family as her father did a lot of combat sports including kickboxing, when he was younger, and her mother is a former team handball player. She’s got a strong-willed sister, Heidi Mahfoud, who works as a medical doctor, and her brother Allan Mahfoud, who is Sarahs boxing trainer and once a talented pro fighter too with an extensive amateur boxing background.

Her mother and father met in Paris while both studying in France and later moved to Faroe Islands, where Sarah Mahfoud was born. She lived there for some years before the family moved to Denmark, and the rest of her childhood was spent in Denmark.

Faroe Islands however still plays a huge role in her life. She speaks fluently Faroese and frequently visits her original hometown of Vestmanna, a village of only 1.245 people. She is very popular in the Faroe Islands, and was invited to meet the Prime Minister, when she became world champion.

Sarah Mahfoud is a Danish citizen and is based in Copenhagen, Denmark, but feels Faroese, Syrian and Danish just the same. All the places where her family lives feel like home.

It’s from Mahfoud’s father that she has inherited her love of unarmed combat. Sarah Mahfoud started practicing karate while in primary school, but later changed to boxing together with her brother, and she had her first amateur bout at the age of 14.

She started out in the HSK boxing club in Hillerod, Denmark under the guidance of boxing trainer Steen Sorensen. As an amateur she was later trained by Ricard Olsen, who also developed and guided former world champion Mikkel Kessler though numerous of title fights for many years.

Mahfoud enjoyed a successful amateur career, winning three Danish championships and twice being crowned Nordic champion (a championship between the national champions of Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland and Iceland). She also fought for Denmark at the 2012 World Amateur Championships in China.

She became a popular household name in Denmark in 2016 by winning the Danish version of the TV program “Dancing With The Stars”, the worldwide phenomenon with dozens of versions of the show being produced in countries around the world.

Mahfoud’s elegance, grace and athleticism won her the whole competition, and she is so far the only boxer worldwide to do so, even though many have tried such as Evander Holyfield, Floyd Mayweather, Victor Ortiz, Laila Ali and Sugar Ray Leonard in the US version, and Joe Calzaghe in the UK version etc.

Around the same time legendary Danish fight promoter Mogens Palle, who already knew about her boxing talent, sent her an email inviting her to contact him, if she wanted to turn pro.

Together with his daughter Bettina Palle and popular Danish former heavyweight star Brian Nielsen the experienced matchmaker and promotor, who was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame (IBHOF) in 2008, was eager to ad her to his new stable of fighters and promised to make her a world champion inside three years.

Based in a small country with less than 6 million people Mogens Palle produced an impressive number of official European champions (26) plus world champions such as Mikkel Kessler, Ayub Kalule, Johnny Bredahl, Jimmi Bredahl, Gert Bo Jacobsen, Magne Havnaa, Anita Christensen etc.
Under his expert guidance, Mahfoud quickly earned a shot at the interim IBF featherweight title in just her 10th pro bout.

She qualified for the title bout first by winning every round against Stephanie Ducastel, who only one year earlier had earned a draw against WBC world champion Jelena Mrdjenovich, and then by outpointing Bukiwe Nonina of South Africa to win IBF’s Inter-Continental title.

Sarah Mahfoud advanced and won the IBF title in February 2020 with a unanimous decision over Argentinean Brenda Karen Carabajal (16-5-1) after ten fast-paced rounds where the Danish lady dominated the action with a steady attack from round 1.

The fast-handed Danish fighter was trained by the experienced heavyweight fighter Sherman "Tank" Williams, who was in charge of Mahfoud for the Carabajal fight, where she showed huge improvements.

A few days after the victory Mahfoud was celebrated at Copenhagen City Hall by the lord mayor of Copenhagen, and the very same day she travelled to Faroe Islands, where she received a hero’s welcome in her childhood city.

Shortly after the celebrations the Covid-19 pandemic broke out. Sarah Mahfoud, who is a registrered nurse, decided to use her skills and enroll as part of the temporary healthcare workforce at a hospital in Copenhagen in the Danish battle against Covid-19.

She felt obligated to volunteer in this situation because of her education and because the boxing world was closed down too. She likes to work with people and make a positive difference, and therefore volunteered, because she wanted to be able to do, what she can.

Mahfoud however kept training in her spare time and with the renowned boxing trainer Benny Checa of Panama as her new chief second, she finally returned to the ring on April 21, 2022 in Copenhagen and defeated her mandatory challenger Nina Meinke of Germany and thereby successfully defended the championship.

On September 24 2022 she got her big break when she took a big title unification fight (IBF, WBC, WBO, IBO and Ring Magazine) against Amanda Serrano on only five weeks notice at a time, when she was working at a hospital as a nurse.

A few weeks before the fight her promotor and mentor Mogens Palle died and handed over the responsibilities to his daughter Bettina Palle.

Pound-for-pound star Amanda Serrano won a 10-round unanimous decision over Sarah Mahfoud, but Mahfoud managed to win three rounds according to the judges in Manchester Arena. Given the deficit in experience, Mahfoud did very well to win some of the last rounds.

The salary from that specific fight made it possible for Sarah Mahfoud to concentrate and work fulltime on her boxing career. She teamed up with her brother as her new head coach and picked up three straight wins in 2023 - without losing a single round - against German Lara Ochmann, Italian Veronica Tosi and Argentinean female boxing legend Marcela Eliana Acuña winning and defending the WBC Silver title along the way in huge events. The fights against Tosi and Acuña were held in the huge Royal Arena in Copenhagen.

Now she is looking to become world champion again and to possibly unite the four major belts in the featherweight division.

Sarah Mahfoud is a crossover star in Denmark having participated in many tv-shows and finished fourth place in the 2023 Danish version of “The Traitors”. She is described as a very likable person in Danish media. Highly intelligent, with an engaging personality and a winning smile and sense of humour, she certainly doesn’t resemble the mental image many people have of a prize fighter. Still she possesses an enormous amount of will power and determination too and remain resolute in the pursuit of her goals.

Facts - Sarah Mahfoud
• Date of birth: September 29, 1989
• Birthplace: Thorshavn, Faroe Islands
• Residence: Copenhagen, Denmark
• Height: 5 feet 5 inches / 165 centimeter
• Weight division: Featherweight
• Trainer: Allan Mahfoud (brother), Mauricio Ramirez
• Promoter/manager: Bettina Palle (Danish Fight Night)
• Professional record: 14-1 (3 KO)
• Professional debut: February 11, 2017
• Titles: Former IBF World Featherweight Champion, former WBC Silver Featherweight Champion and former IBF Inter-Continental Featherweight Champion.
• Amateur career: 55 fights; 3 times national Danish champion. 2 times Nordic champion. Participated in the 2012 AIBA Women's World Amateur Championship in China.
• Social media - Instagram: @_sarahmahfoud
 

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