MMA coach injured during mass shooting in St. Petersburg

Mixed martial arts coach Ruslan Bulguchev was among those injured during a mass brawl-turned-shooting that took place in St. Petersburg, Russia. According to reports…

By: Karim Zidan | 10 months ago
MMA coach injured during mass shooting in St. Petersburg
Bloody Elbow 2.0 | Anton Tabuena

Mixed martial arts coach Ruslan Bulguchev was among those injured during a mass brawl-turned-shooting that took place in St. Petersburg, Russia.

According to reports from Russian media, the incident took place on Aug. 8 in the suburbs around Ekaterininskaya Street, where approximately 30 people gathered to take part in a mass fight.

According to witnesses, the fight lasted for several minutes until one of the participants began firing gun shots. As the group dispersed and fled the scene, Bulguchev was found lying on the ground.

A portion of the incident was captured on video.

Bulguchev was hospitalized and diagnosed with “lacerations in the chest and thigh” after being shot four times. He was released from hospital shortly thereafter.

“It’s all right with me. Yes, they hurt, but everything is in order,” Bulguchev told reporters. “I’m on my way to work now, so it’s all good. I don’t know why they did such a fuss.”

Some reports have since claimed that several other MMA fighters were involved in the brawl, including Artyom Tarasov and Nikita Solonin. Tarasov has since claimed that he was present at the scene but did not take part in the brawl.

“You can even see on the video at the end where the guys are beating a man, I run over and say that you don’t need to beat one,” Tarasov said. “I am in a black jacket and yellow slippers.”

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About the author
Karim Zidan
Karim Zidan

Karim Zidan is a investigative reporter and feature writer focusing on the intersection of sports and politics. He has written for BloodyElbow since 2014 and has served as an associate editor since 2016. He also writes for The New York Times and The Guardian. Karim has been invited to speak about his work at numerous universities, including Princeton, and was a panelist at the South by Southwest (SXSW) film festival and the Oslo Freedom Forum. He also participated in the United Nations counter-terrorism conference in 2021. His reporting on Ramzan Kadyrov’s involvement in MMA, much of which was done for Bloody Elbow, has led to numerous award nominations, and was the basis of an award-winning HBO Real Sports documentary.

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