Russian MMA fighter found dead on train

Russian MMA fighter Georgiy Gagloev has been found dead at the age of 25 in the carriage of a train which was traveling from Moscow to Vladikavkaz. There are suggestions that Gagloev’s death may have been “violent,” Russian news agency TASS reported, citing sources.

Gagloev’s body is said to have been discovered during a stop in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don. Relatives of the fighter, who was from Ossetia, have already gone to the city to collect the body, TASS added.

Bantamweight Gagloev is listed by MMA records website Sherdog as having four fights during his career – winning one but losing his past three trips to the cage.

Gagloev last fought in March 2021, competing in the ‘Old Guard Fight Club’ event in Russia but suffering a submission defeat to compatriot Aleksey Ponomorenko.

According to Russian outlet Sport-Express, Gagloev was a local North Ossetian champion in freestyle wrestling and hand-to-hand combat before moving into MMA. He is also said to have had a stint in jail, and donned a prison-style outfit for one of his walk-outs to the cage.

Sport-Express reported that Gagloev’s career may have been “hindered by personal problems” in recent years, including the search for his aunt, Rimma – a purported fortune-teller who is said to have gone missing after traveling from the UAE to Grozny.

Gagloev even turned to Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov with a video appeal for him to help in the search, but to no avail.