UC Irvine alumni Farzad Tabatabai was inducted into the National Boxing Hall of Fame at a ceremony at the Quiet Cannon Banquet Hall in Montebello, Calif. on April 26. Tabatabai was recognized for his decades of attorney work within the world of boxing, representing fighters, managers, promoters, trainers, athletic inspectors and fans.
Tabatabai graduated from UC Irvine in 1992 with a degree in political science and economics and received his law degree from UC San Francisco, formerly UC Hastings, in 1995. At UCI, he recalled involvement in ASUCI, UCI Yearbook, KUCI and New University.
“I have so many great memories of UCI. I love UCI,” Tabatabai told New University. “I started right before a major construction boom, and we used to joke that UCI is ‘Under Construction Indefinitely.’”
Three years after graduating from UCI, legal job hunting was incredibly difficult, according to Tabatabai. However, Tabatabai was able to find work at a large firm and, after a period of switching between boutique firms, started his own practice and a career as a representative of boxing.
“My first client was a promoter by the name of Dan Goossen, and his promotion company was Goossen Tutor promotions. And so that was my first taste of boxing,” Tabatabai said. “And since then I’ve represented him [and] numerous other fighters. I’ve represented literally every aspect of the sport.”
Even after spending 20 years contributing to the boxing scene, Tabatabai was surprised to hear that he was under consideration for the National Boxing Hall of Fame, and even more so that he was selected.
“The boxing part was just stumbled upon. The universe is magic. I don’t know how else to put it,” Tabatabai said. “This is quite shocking and surprising to me. I was not expecting this honor.”
For those in attendance supporting him, the recognition was a bit less of a surprise. Meenoo Mozayeny, a first cousin of Tabatabai’s, grew up with him and attended UCI concurrently during the same four years — to her, the recognition was less mystical and instead a testament to his hard work.
“Farzad is a really hard worker, and he has a very, very sharp and agile mind, and he’s always been on the side of wanting to defend people,” Mozayeny told New University. “We always knew he was going to be a lawyer. He’s always been good at arguing but always for the right side.”
Tabatabai was one of nine special category inductees, which allows for those that contributed to boxing outside the ring to be selected. Recognized as a lawyer, he found personal and professional significance in his induction.
“[It] isn’t lost on me that I’m, as far as I know, the only Iranian-American who’s inducted,” Tabatabai said. “And as far as I’ve been able to search, and my friends have searched, we can’t find a single other instance where any lawyer has been inducted for practicing law into a Hall of Fame.”
For him, the distinction of being the only lawyer ever inducted was an opportunity to prove the importance of legal representatives for almost any field. Tabatabai, who put in effort as a lawyer to make his clients feel cared for, was shown that same appreciation at the Hall of Fame ceremony.
Like other inductees at the event, he was able to walk a red carpet that led into the Quiet Cannon Banquet Hall. The couple National Boxing Hall of Fame President Bill Young and Vice President Linda Young posed with Tabatabai for a photo before they both took their seats.
Inductees were more-or-less ordered alphabetically for their introduction and speeches, which resulted in Tabatabai speaking last at the event. In his speech, Tabatabai told stories about clients that believed in him and helped establish his career in boxing.
“My first boxing case was a battle over the Antonio Margarito–Paul Williams fight,” Tabatabai said in his speech. “Paul had earned the title shot but had been denied the fight once before. Powerful interests tried to block that bout again. I fought in multiple jurisdictions, and finally, after an emergency trial, on a rainy day in Federal Court in San Juan, Puerto Rico, the legal system worked.”
Williams, as he stated, won the chance to fight Margarito and won the fight. Without Tabatabai, the fight would not have happened. Such impact on the world of boxing is what culminated into the recognition he received on April 26. To finish his speech, he thanked his fellow inductees, Dan Goossen once more and his parents.
With a bronze boxing glove as his trophy, Tabatabai spoke after the ceremony about his father, who was a judge in Iran, and the other legal influences that imbued a sense of justice in him.
“I’ve grown up with sort of the sense of right and wrong, understanding your proper initial temperament, and those types of skills that have translated into me being an effective lawyer,” Tabatabai said.
Tabatabai’s background as a child of two immigrants also shaped his desire to mentor others. In elementary school, when he didn’t know the difference in how to spell “weather” and “whether,” he was forced to go through the entire letter “W” in an English dictionary in order to find the two words.
“I couldn’t ask my parents. They didn’t speak English,” Tabatabai said. “I was on the admissions committee [at] law school, I was on the admissions committee for two years. And so I’ve always made it an effort to be a mentor.”
When asked about what he’d like to say to UCI students seeing his success, Tabatabai recommended an exercise that he had done before embarking on his own career: making a bucket list and refraining from self-redaction.
“I actually wanted to put on the list, ‘be in a hall of fame,’ and it’s the one thing I self-checked myself on — I redacted,” Tabatabai said. “I didn’t put it on my list. I thought, ‘Come on, I’m never getting in a hall of fame.’ Like, it’s silly … And here it is.”
In regards to his future, Tabatabai doesn’t see anything topping his recent induction into the National Boxing Hall of Fame. Instead, he insists on continuing to protect his clients, as he said in an interview, with “honesty, integrity, dignity and to the best of my ability.”
“If my getting this honor … helps any students, whether they want to go into law, whether it’s sports, whether it’s whatever dream they have — if this can help inspire them or motivate them, that would make me happy,” Tabatabai said.
Avery Rosas is a Features Editor. He can be reached at rosasaj1@uci.edu.
Edited by Ennes Kahf and Geneses Navarro.
