Mehdi Khodabakhshi

Mehdi Khodabakhshi is an Iranian-born Serbian Taekwondo practitioner. He was two times world champion, in 2014 and in 2022.

Career

He represented Iran until 2019 when he switched allegiance by representing Serbia through naturalisation. He has been involved in the sport for more than 15 years. He has beaten several Taekwondo notables such as Aaron Cook and Steven Lopez and was the world champion. Additionally, he won the gold medal in the welterweight division in the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon. He is a participant of the 2016 Rio Olympics, but lost in the 1/04-Final against the Iranian born Azeri Milad Beigi He won his second world title in 2022 World Taekwondo Championships, first time representing Serbia.