(“I f*cking hate RC cars!”)
Undefeated Russian featherweight prospect Rasul Mirzaev (5-0) may not be able to compete for Bellator any time soon considering he may be preoccupied fighting a murder charge in Russia.
Mirzaev, 25, is accused of killing a student in Moscow who was flirting with a female acquaintance of his outside of a nightclub in the Russian city.
Apparently the victim was using a radio-controlled car to attract women and when he offered to give a friend of Mirzaev’s a ride home in the toy, “The Black Tiger,” who Bellator announced it had signed three days ago — the same day as the incident — stomped it to bits.
An argument ensued and Mirzaev dropped the man with a left to the temple. The victim, Ivan Angafonov, was knocked out and was taken to hospital. He never regained consciousness and died four days later in spite of doctors working on him around the clock.
“This is a tragic concurrence of events,” the promoter of Fight Night series where Mirzaev recently became champion told Interfax news agency.“[Mirzaev] hasn’t been officially summoned to the police yet, but if this happens – then he’ll go because this case has to be sorted out. Rasul is very sorry about what happened. The incident has nothing to do with hate crimes. It was just an everyday situation which turned into tragedy.”
An everyday situation in Russia seems a bit different than one from North America, apparently. I’ve never seen a dude use an RC car to pick up women outside a club and I’ve definitely never seen a dude smash a guy’s toy for using a cheesy pick-up line and then kill him when he gets mad over it.
A criminal case of deliberately inflicting grievous bodily harm resulting in the death has been launched against Mirzaev and authorities are currently questioning witnesses, so there’s a pretty good chance he won’t be in the Bellator featherweight tourney next season.