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For the second time in under a month, ACB League in Russia has overturned the result of one their fights following an investigation. The most recent incident took place after their ACB 45 event held in St Petersburg, Russia last evening.



Yesterday’s controversy came in the fight between Magomed Khamzaev and Taichi Nakajima when the Japanese fighter was denied a clear stoppage in the first round of the fight. Nakajima appeared to secure victory when he sent the Russian crashing to the mat as he hit him in the midsection with a stiff body kick to the liver.



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Khamzaev however, convinced the referee that it was a shot to the groin and thus was given a timeout to recover. The fight eventually went to the judges where the Russian was given the nod on the scorecards in highly controversial fashion.



Following the fights, fans and fellow fighters outpoured their emotion at the lack of justice that had been done on the part of Nakajima. Thankfully, all was put right just hours later.



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Following the fight, ACB owner, Mairbek Khasiev, launched an investigation into what happened and it resulted in the fight result being overturned.

ACB informed the world via a statement on their Instagram.



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“Unfortunately, an unpleasant incident took place at ACB 45,” Khasiev wrote. “The incident took place in the fight between Magomed Khamzaev and Taichi Nakajima. In the first round, the Japanese fighter delivered a heavy blow to the liver and Khamzaev reacted by grabbing his groin. It was a TKO, however, unfortunately, the referee believed the kick went below the waist level. The fight continued and Magomed won via unanimous decision.



“After reviewing the incident many times on replay,” he continued. “I immediately got in touch with Magomed and asked him to explain the situation. He admitted that he deliberately grabbed his groin, to recover from the blow.



“Therefore, I declare: 1) the result of the fight will be overturned and the victory given to the Japanese athlete; 2) Since Magomed self-confessed his wrongdoing, any sanctions against him will not be applied; 3) We will hold a Union MMA meeting to discuss if there will be any action taken against the referee, and we will decide whether he will continue to work on the tournament and with our organization.”



Khasiev then referred to the fact that only last month, he also had to overturn a decision at ACB 43 when the former ACB flyweight champion, Velimurad Alkhasov, was found guilty of feigning injury and forcing an impromptu end to his title defense against Rasul Albaskhanov.



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In that instance, Khasiev stripped Alkhasov of his belt and terminated his contract with the organization.



“In conclusion, I would say that I am rather tired of interfering with the jurisdiction of the fights, however, circumstances are such that such intervention was necessary again,” he wrote. “If I have to, I'll do it every tournament. ACB should be all about honesty. This is one of the main principles on which our league was founded, and we will always stick by that.”