Vatsilov Davudov

Vatsilov Gadzhiyasulovich Davudov was a Russian judoka and sambo wrestler from Dagestan, a Master of Sport of Russia who won the European Judo Cup in Orenburg in 2016 and a bronze medal at the 2023 Russian Sambo Championships. He was shot in Makhachkala on 14 November 2026 and died of his wounds at the age of 31.

Davudov was born on 29 March 1995 in the village of Gindib in the Tlyaratinsky District of Dagestan. He was the younger brother of Nadzhibula Davudov, born in 1990, who also became a judoka and sambo wrestler and won silver at the 2019 Russian Judo Championships. In 2009 Nadzhibula brought Vatsilov to Makhachkala to train in judo, and the city remained his home and training base for the rest of his life. He was coached by Shamil Aliyev, an Honoured Coach of Russia, and trained with the Makhachkala sports school for Olympic reserves (SDYuSShOR).

His first major national result came in the spring of 2015, when he took bronze at the Russian Under 23 Judo Championships in Tyumen in the under 90 kg category. In May 2016 he won the European Judo Cup in Orenburg, beating Rustam Amirmetov in the final. JudoInside lists that European Cup gold as the high point of his international judo record.

He later moved up to the heavier categories and competed at the 2019 Russian Judo Championships in Nazran in the under 100 kg division. He also built a second career in sambo. In December 2020 he won the North Caucasus Federal District sambo championship in Nalchik. In May 2022 he became judo champion of Dagestan in Kaspiysk, and in 2022 he won the All Russian tournament for the prizes of the Russian Armed Forces, the Yaroslav Kerod Cup, in Saint Petersburg. In late June 2022 he took bronze at the open All Russian tournament in memory of Vladimir Gulidov in Krasnoyarsk.

Davudov won bronze medals at the Russian Judo Cup in 2022 and 2023. On 1 March 2023 in Perm he won bronze at the Russian Sambo Championships, the result most often cited in reports of his death. He also took bronze at the international Cup of the Founders of Sambo in 2023. Dagestan state broadcaster RGVK Dagestan featured him several times, including a profile on its programme Vremya Sporta, and he and his brother were profiled together in a film about judo in Dagestan.

On 14 November 2026 Davudov was attending a celebration at the Marakesh banquet hall in Makhachkala. Accounts of the shooting differed in the first reports. The Telegram channel 112, cited by Lenta.ru, Gazeta.ru and Sport Express, reported that he stepped outside and was shot from a passing black Toyota Camry, and that one bullet struck him in the head. RIA Novosti, citing a law enforcement source, and the regional Investigative Committee said that a local resident fired at him during a conflict in the banquet hall. Fontanka reported that the event was a wedding banquet and that a quarrel between guests had turned into a fight. He was taken for medical help and died of his injuries.

The Investigative Committee opened a murder case under Part 1 of Article 105 of the Russian Criminal Code, and Fontanka reported that the Dagestan prosecutor's office took the investigation under its control and that police launched an interception plan to find the attackers. No one had been publicly named as charged at the time of the first reports.

Davudov is remembered in Dagestan as part of the republic's deep tradition of judo and sambo, a European Cup winner and national medallist who trained alongside his older brother from his teenage years.