Nashe Delo fight promotion seriously invested in the fight between the Russians Shovkhal Churchaev and Artem Rofal (a student of Alexander Shlemenko). It is not for nothing that the confrontation was promoted as the event of the year in the league's social networks. However, everything fell apart a day before the fighters entered the cage. The day before, a mass brawl broke out at a press conference in Moscow, which turned the situation upside down.
On Thursday at the shopping center “Riviera” the organizers of the Friday tournament rolled up a big event. They beautifully decorated the stage and, seating the fighters on opposite sides of the microphone stand, which was occupied by the league's sports director Armen Ghulyan, held a press conference to match the UFC itself. However, the microphone in the hall fell into the hands of one of the “fans”, who clearly wanted to provoke Churchaev. And he did it: the fighter took off his dark glasses and rushed into the crowd. A few seconds later, a real mass brawl erupted in the hall of the shopping center, which could not be stopped by either the calls of the organizers or the intervention of the guards.
Passions soon came to naught. However, it turned out that during the brawl Churchaev injured his hand. This immediately prompted fans to think about the cancellation of one of the most anticipated confrontations of the year in the world of pop MMA. And so it happened.
Despite the fact that Churchaev was ready to fight even with an injury, the promotion decided not to risk the fighter's health. And, perhaps, they once again reinsured themselves so that a more terrible massacre would not happen at the tournament.
This is far from the first scandal involving Churchaev in recent months. In early July, the Chechen had a no less hype fight with the “Persian Dagestan” Mohammed Heybati. The poster was organized by the Hardcore promotion. Shovkhal then could not meet the weight category limit, missed the official weigh-in ceremony, but was still eager to fight. He even accused the Persians of cowardice.
On the day of the tournament, Churchaev was at the CSKA Arena and even challenged Heibati to a bare-knuckle fight. However, when the main event of the evening was announced, Churchaev did not enter the cage: it turned out that the fighter was no longer at the stadium.
This situation angered the head of Hardcore Anatoly Sulyanov. He called on other leagues to limit Churchaev's ability to fight on their sites and announced his intention to sue the outrageous athlete. Today, the functionary asked organizations to revise the rules of conduct at press conferences and decided to ban fighters for fighting at these events for a certain period of time:
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“Another big resonance in the industry. What happened not yesterday, but has been going on for a long time, goes beyond the industry, beyond the limits of sports, the norms of social behavior. To all of us in the industry, I think this is one of the last calls that each of us should hear.
