Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov has shut down his boxing club after it turned out that a number of bouts at a tournament named after his late father were rigged.
"All employees, including the management, have been laid off," he wrote on his blog Monday.
Kadyrov said that the cheating was "undisguised," in reference to several decisions made by judges at the Akhmat-Hadji Kadyrov boxing tournament held in Grozny last week.
"Akhmat-Hadji stood firm on the principles of justice, even though it put his life in danger. I cannot afford to violate the principles of the tournament created in his memory," Kadyrov said.
His father, former Chechen leader Akhmat Kadyrov, was killed in a bomb blast in 2004.
"The judge announced the defeat of the boxer Bogomazov, although he clearly defeated Ashakhanov. And this was not the only case," Ramzan Kadyrov added.
However, Chechnya will not be left without a boxing club.
"Boxing is loved in Chechnya," said Kadyrov, who vowed to establish a new club named Akhmat.
Kadyrov has also asked the Russian Boxing Federation to look into refereeing standards at boxing tournaments to stop the sport turning into nothing more than a market for buying and selling medals.
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