MOSCOW, Jan 15 (Reuters) - Russian Olympic champion wrestler Said  Murtazaliyev was in a stable condition in a Moscow hospital on Tuesday, a day  after he sustained a stab wound close to his heart.     "His condition remained serious, but stable," the president of the Russian  Wrestling Federation, Mikhail Mamiashvili, told Reuters on Tuesday.     "Today, he was transferred from the emergency unit to a normal hospital ward.  He should consider himself lucky after sustaining a penetrating wound near  his heart."     Mamiashvili said that Murtazaliyev and two companions were involved in a  fight outside a Moscow night club in the early hours of Monday. One of the  wrestler's friends was killed.     Murtazaliyev, 27, won the 97 kg freestyle Olympic gold medal last year in  Sydney and also won the world title in 1999.     Mamiashvili remained optimistic that Murtazaliyev will return to the top of  his sport in the future.     "This is a very tough blow to the Russian team. Said was our leader, the team  captain," Mamiashvili said. "But knowing his character, I have no doubt he'll  be back. I know at least one other great athlete who came back after a  similar injury."     Indeed, the experience of Russian swimmer Alexander Popov, who suffered  serious knife wounds in a clash with watermelon sellers on a deserted Moscow  street in the summer of 1996, may offer some hope to Murtazaliyev.     Popov had just completed a second Olympic sprint double in Atlanta and many  doubted he could ever come back.     But he did, retaining his European 50 and 100 freestyle titles the following  year and retaining his world 100 freestyle crown in 1998.     And two months short of his 29th birthday, Popov won a silver medal in the  100 metres freestyle at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.     Monday's incident was the latest episode of violence involving high-profile  Russian athletes in recent months.     European weightlifting champion Yevgeny Chegishev suffered multiple knife  wounds and his team mate Igor Kudryavtsev was stabbed to death after a New  Year's Eve fight in the Siberian city of Novokuznetsk.     Figure skater Kira Ivanova, who won a bronze medal at the 1984 Sarajevo  Olympics, was found dead in a pool of blood from multiple knife wounds in her  Moscow apartment last month.