The world of wrestling witnessed few controversies in year 2019. The year became witness to 4 month ban for the best wrestler of the world Abdulrashid Sadulaev of Russia for defaulting on clothing guidelines. Not only one of the sport’s show-piece event UWW Greco-Roman World Cup in Iran got postponed just 2 days before the event. But the controversy over referring at the biggest stage of the sport i.e UWW World Wrestling championships in Nur-Sultan in September generated maximum amount of embarrassment and criticism for the organizers and the sport’s governing body itself.
The most controversial bout of 2019 – Bajrang Punia (Ind) vs Daulet Niyazbekov (Kaz) – World Championship Semi-finals
Without any doubt the tag would go to the bout featuring India’s Bajrang Punia. At that point of time Punia was world number 1 in the 65kg category and was big favorite to win the world championship title in Nur-Sultan. But the alleged biased referring in favor of local wrestler from Kazakhstan gave Punia the heartbreaking loss in the semi-finals in controversial circumstances.
Also Read: Wrestling Year Ender 2019 : Watch the best 10 moves by the Greco-Roman wrestlers in year 2019
Throughout the bout Bajrang’s frustrated coach Shako Banitidis kicked the coach’s block in anger, protesting the partisan officiating during the 65kg bout, which ended 9-9 after a nerve-wracking six minutes. Bajrang himself kept raising his hands against the referees controversial decisions.
“I will never forget what they did to me. I was so heartbroken that I did not even want to fight for the bronze. The whole world saw what they did. I had worked so hard for the World Championship gold. I appeal to the UWW to do something about it,” Bajrang told WrestlingTV, after his controversial semifinal defeat.
It was alleged that In the controversial bout, the referee gave ample time to tiring Niyazbekov to catch his breath and he was not warned at least thrice.
