Emmanuel Agassi

Emmanuel "Mike" Agassi (born December 25, 1930 as Emanoul B. Aghasi (ایمانوئل آغاسی) in Salamas ) is a former Iranian boxer . He was a participant in the Olympic Games in 1948 and 1952 .

Career

Agassi was born in Iran in 1930 to Armenian - Assyrian parents. In the summer of 1948 he was a member of the 35 athletes in the Iranian Olympic team at the Summer Olympics in London and was their youngest member at the age of 17. He started in the bantamweight category (up to 54 kg), but lost to the Spaniard Álvaro Vicente Doménech on points in the first round .

Four years later, Agassi took part in Helsinki again in the Summer Olympic Games . In the featherweight category (up to 57 kg) he was again defeated in the first round by the later bronze medalist Leonard Leisching from South Africa.

After emigrating to the USA , he changed his name to Mike Agassi. In Chicago he met his future wife Elizabeth Dudley. They moved to Las Vegas together , where Agassi initially worked as a tennis instructor. The couple has four children. Best known is his son Andre Agassi , a successful tennis player and Olympic champion.

Works

• 2004: The Agassi Story (with Dominic Cobello and Kate Shoup Welsh)

Web links

• Emmanuel Agassi in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )