On February 17, a martial arts champion was killed after allegedly picking a fight with a security guard at the Ministry of Digital Development and Mass Communications in Moscow.
Gennady Pavlov, a Russian champion in hand-to-hand combat, allegedly began a verbal altercation with a security guard near the ministry building, which resulted in a scuffle between the two men. According to the guard’s statement to police officials, the two men fell on the ground during the fight and that Pavlov hit his head on the pavement during the fall. The 22-year-old fighter was pronounced dead at the scene.
“The footage showed that a security guard was attacked. During the brawl, he asked witnesses to call for help”, Evgeny Novikov, a spokesperson for the ministry, stated.
Despite the security footage confirming the attack, Pavlov’s family and friends described him as a “good, quiet man.”
Pavlov’s death is not the first tragic incident involving combat sports athletes in recent years. Yury Vlasko, a Master of Sports in wrestling, was stabbed to death during a mass brawl in Buryatia in July 2017. Another MMA fighter was jailed for 18 years for killing a weightlifter in a street-fight.
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