Judo scandal in the Bundesliga: guest fighter Akaki Japaridze speaks out

His attack on the German Olympic starter Timo Cavelius in a Bundesliga fight caused horror in the judo scene, now the Leipzig guest fighter Akaki Japaridze has spoken out. «Any form of physical aggression in sport is unacceptable. I do not shirk responsibility for what happened,” said the Georgian in a statement on his Instagram channel.

The 24-year-old Japaridze from JC Leipzig beat Cavelius, who was fighting for TSV Abensberg, until he was hospitalized and broke his jaw. The Georgian now tried to explain why this freakout happened. He wanted to make it clear, he wrote, that this incident was “not the result of emotions” triggered by the sporting defeat. “The reason was different: the opponent's defamatory behavior towards me, both verbally and through gestures. This is also completely unacceptable in sport and in the context of sports ethics - and primarily unacceptable for me as a Georgian and as a man," wrote Japaridze.

The Georgian, who has now returned to his homeland, posted a video on Instagram from the first of the two Bundesliga fights against Cavelius in the 90 kilo limit. It can be seen that Cavelius, who was defeated by ippon, does not want to accept the judge's verdict, while Japaridze bows respectfully three times. He lost the second fight against the German, who then showed a clenched fist in the direction of his team and also in the direction of the Georgian. Then Japaridze suddenly hit his opponent and seriously injured his face.

Cavelius: “Neither verbally insulted nor physically attacked him”

Cavelius responded to this representation. “This celebration was for my own team and was an expression of the joy of winning the fight. I would like to make it expressly clear that it was at no time my intention to humiliate Akaki Japaridze as an athlete or to insult him because of his origins, his nationality or his identity as a Georgian man," Cavelius wrote in a statement available to the German Press Agency and added: "If my celebration still came across to him as a personal provocation or insult, I regret that he felt it that way. I did not intend such an effect.”

Cavelius, who was immediately operated on after the incident last Saturday at the Leipzig University Hospital and had his jaw fixed with three plates, now has to wait another ten to twelve weeks until he can fight again. “I’m on the road to recovery,” Cavelius told dpa. Looking back, he said: “Even if my celebration triggered negative emotions in Akaki Japaridze, this can neither explain nor justify such an excess of violence. I neither verbally insulted nor physically attacked him.” The 29-year-old Bavarian will miss the World Cup from October 4th to 11th in Baku.