ONE ON ONE
Mahjoub acknowledged in a 2011 interview with an Iranian newspaper that he threw a match against a German judoka to avoid competing against Israeli judoka Or Sasson at the September 2011 Tashkent Judo World Cup in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.[5] "If I refused to compete with the Israeli, they would have suspended our judo federation for four years", he said.[5][6][7]
In the 2012 Summer Olympics (where he might have had to face Israeli judoka Arik Ze'evi, the 2012 European champion and 2004 Olympic bronze medalist who was one of the favorites), he withdrew from competition at the last moment.[5] Iranian authorities announced that he had a "critical digestive system infection".[5][8] Before the Olympics, Iran's Minister of Sports and Youth Affairs Mohammad Abbasi had said that "not competing with Zionist athletes is one of the values and sources of pride of the Iranian people and its athletes."[5]
He has since fled Iran and now resides as a refugee in Canada.[9] He was nominated to the Refugee Olympic Team for the 2020 Summer Olympics in the sport of judo