A mass melee broke out at a local wrestling event on Thursday in Moscow.
The incident, which were first reported by Tass.ru correspondent Igor Lazorin, resulted in fans running onto the wrestling mats and brawled with various athletes.
Footage of the incident has since been published on Telegram.
Though it remains unclear why the brawl broke out, the president of the Russian wrestling federation, Mikhail Mamiashvili, blamed the coaches for a lack of discipline.
“Unfortunately, such things happen, it’s a matter of internal culture and understanding of the action that is happening. And a flaw in coaches, of course. Yes, these are emotions, but emotions can’t explain it,” said Mamiashvili. “Respect for yourself should be in order to prevent such shameful things. Yes, then they will apologize, yes, they will try to explain something that happened. But when so much effort and energy is spent on organizing… In the family, not without ill-mannered people, we will say goodbye to such people forever.”
In the aftermath of the brawl, one of the wrestlers who was allegedly responsible for initiating the conflict was disqualified from the tournament. The wrestler, Islam Isayev, was scheduled to compete for third place after losing the semi-final match.
“There was a tense semifinal match between serious athletes,” said Konstantin Klimov, President of the Pancration Federation of Russia. “There was heat on the carpet, and one of the athletes broke the rules. After that, the fans broke through the net on the carpet. The judges turned on, attempts were made to settle the conflict quickly and bring people out, but it did not turn out the first time, then law enforcement officers came to the carpet and the conflict was exhausted.”
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