August 31, 6:50 p.m. Moscow time, a beautiful shopping center on the third road ring. To understand, it is in front of the CSKA hockey arena. In the mall itself, people comfortably buy lemonades ahead of September 1, drink lattes and watch the press conference unfold in the center aisle ahead of the league’s MMA tournament. Surprising the inhabitants of today’s metropolis is not so easy, but 6:51 pm fighter Shovkhal Churchaev finds a way.
From the scene, he jumps into the crowd of fans and starts a fight with the one who challenged him to a duel. At some point, the fight breaks out against the backdrop of well-known cosmetics and utensil stores.
what was that?
Over the past two years, Our Business League has mastered celebrity fights very well. It was there that Nikita Dzhigurda, Otar Kushanashvili, a famous taxi passenger named Murad and even former Spartak footballer Georgy Tigiev fought with singer Oleg Miami. At the same time, serious fighters have sometimes been revealed in Our Business: Shara Bullet, David Barkhudaryan or even Alexander Emelianenko won his last cage victory in this league.
Now the promotion has decided to move away from show fights and focus on professional MMA. The September 1 tournament was supposed to be led by a fighter from the hall of Alexander Shlemenko, Artem Rofal, and a very daring man, Shovkhal Churchaev. About two months ago, Churchaev could have participated in the main battle at CSKA Arena, arrived at the tournament, but left the stadium, almost causing a conflict with the head of the promotion. Official stats for a fighter in professional and non-professional bouts are 6-2.
Shovhal’s behavior during the press conference is easier to understand from the timeline.
6:34 p.m. – Shovhal appears at the press conference scheduled for 6:00 p.m.
6:38 p.m. – said: “Let Armen [Гулян] They will throw 20 lyams at me, I want to hang a hut on Kutuzovsky prospect this year”
6:51 p.m. – begins a massive fight.
What was the reason?
During the press conference, the microphone was given to one of the guests, who said: “My name is Jabrayil, I am a mixed martial arts fighter from Azerbaijan… Do you see how proud I am stand in front of your audience? You looked me in the eye and said “I have so many haters”. I’m your main hater. And I look into your eyes, Shovhal.
In response, Churchaev took the microphone and said, “You’re a good guy…”. Then Shovkhal spoke in Chechen to his comrade Ilyas Yakubov asking him to attack Dzhabrail. After that, he himself jumped off the stage, as if he had punched Jabrail in the head and a massive fight began.
What did this lead to?
The fight was interrupted in five minutes. Something rang in the showroom with clothes, Ilyas Yakubov kicked the Azerbaijani fighter near the escalator. When they tried to take the “provocateur” away, a crowd of about 80 people followed him. The press conference normally ended after 20 minutes, but by then the police and the National Guard had arrived.
Churchaev said he broke his finger and posted a picture from behind bars hours later. Probably IVS. On the morning of the tournament, organizers announced that the fight had been called off.
A day later, MP Adam Delimkhanov wrote on his Telegram channel that Ramzan Kadyrov had asked to investigate what happened. “We will consider this issue and fulfill the order 100%,” Delimkhanov wrote.
What does the tournament organizer say?
Armen Ghulyan, who once played very powerfully in MMA (9-0), is the coach and consultant of Eduard Vartanyan and recently led the Our Business league. On the day of the fight, Gulyan was questioned by police and the athlete declined to comment. We are talking about the next day, right after the tournament, when the fight between Rofal and Churchaev did not take place.
– An obvious question: how do you assess what happened?
This situation also worries us. The fight failed under the circumstances of which you are aware. We have repeatedly stressed that such events are unacceptable to us. We don’t want to fight this fight through conflict, we just want to do it.
– What is the final reason for the cancellation of the fight: a finger injury, the detention of Shovkhal, a ban from the Moscow police?
“I think it’s all combined.
– Is Shovhal’s finger injured or not?
“We don’t have the opportunity to examine, we can only start from his words.
– Does the League plan to make fights for Churchaev?
– Not in the near future, but in the future we will answer this a little later. For the time being, the situation must be resolved. During the press conference, I had two questions: why did this person (an MMA fighter named Dzhabrail. – “”) have a microphone. And why was there such a reaction.
– Someone writes that the fight was arranged. What do you think?
– I have no such information. But the man deliberately launched into the provocation.
What did the police ask you?
“They asked how the conflict escalated into a mass brawl. Why did this happen? We have given explanatory notes on this incident. I think it went on for about two hours after the press conference.
– Have employees or tenants of the shopping complex reported material damage?
– I have no such information.
– Do you continue to communicate with Shovhal?
– We had a contract for a fight, there is a disruption clause. The contract has been suspended. We have no other financial obligations. You have to deal with the circumstances.
– Shovhal posted a photo from a police car, was he arrested?
– I can not tell. I have no information about him. We wanted to take all the risks and just fight this fight. Bring that story to the tournament and avoid similar situations. No confrontation interests us. Now we will probably hold press conferences behind closed doors. There are thoughts on how to handle all of these situations, we’ll share them a bit later.
“Do you understand what happened to whoever asked that question?
“I saw him for the first time in my life. As far as I know, after all this, he was also questioned by the police.
– Have you tried to find an opponent for Artem Rofal, given that Miri Sadigov and Mohammed Heybati “Persia from Dagestan” have been called to replace Churchaev?
– The fight against Persian Dagestan was not considered. About the fight with Miri, Artem clearly stated his position – he is not interested. We considered different options, but none were suitable. Artem Rofal will receive a fixed part of his fee, he gained weight, entered the limit, and this situation did not depend on him in any way.
Live broadcasts of the Mixed Martial Arts tournaments can be seen on and Match! Fighter”, as well as on the sites matchtv.ru and sportbox.ru.
Source : MatchTV
I am Ashley Ortiz and I am a professional journalist working for Athletistic. My specialty is in sports journalism, particularly boxing. I have written articles for some of the most renowned publications on the subject, and my work has been featured across both print and digital media platforms.
