MMA fighter-turned-bare knuckle boxer Artem Lobov is sick of the trash talking and ready to punch Paulie Malignaggi in the face.
The two will meet in the main event of the Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship’s (BKFC) sixth event on June 22 at the Whittemore Center at UNH in Durham, New Hampshire.
“The Russian Hammer” is already back despite his bloody BKFC debut. As if his epic war with Jason Knight wasn’t enough, Lobov was right back to training just five days after the brutal affair.
“At this stage, I’m just sick of this whole thing, I just want to get him in there,” Lobov said, speaking to The Delve (via themaclife). “I don’t believe my luck, to be honest, that he’s doing this. I didn’t think this would ever happen, but he must be really stuck for money, and I’ve heard he is. That’s the only reason he’s doing this.”
Lobov believes that Malignaggi’s ultimate goal is a fight with Conor McGregor. However, “The Russian Hammer” doesn’t think the pugilist has thought this through.
“Of course if Conor was to throw him that bone and offer him that fight, he’d take it in a heartbeat,” Lobov said. “That’s hundreds of millions for what? For nothing. He takes an ass whooping and he’s set for life, so of course he would have taken it. He tried to make it happen, he then realized it’s not happening. He still needs the money though, so he had to settle for whatever he could get, the next best thing which was me.”
“And at the time when he took it, he probably thought, ‘Okay, I got my arse whooped by Conor, but Artem, he’s not on the level of Conor so I will take him and it won’t be an issue’. Then he probably watched the last fight [Lobov vs. Knight] and is scratching his head and going, f*ck, should have just stuck to eyebrow plucking.”
Lobov also thinks that his well-rounded skill set as a mixed martial artist is going to be a massive advantage heading into his second bare knuckle bout. As for his opponent, the fan favorite claims Malignaggi is very out of shape and in trouble as a result.
“It’s only nine or eight weeks now until the fight,” Lobov said. “He needs to learn the trade of the clinch. He needs to learn the different pace. He needs to get in shape because he just came off the couch. Big fat pudding. I’ve seen him. Who is going to coach him now? He needs f*ck*ng weight watchers to coach him. That’s who he needs to coach because he’s just a fat guy off the couch. He asked for the fight to be at 154-pounds when he used to fight at 140. What does that tell you? Lazy and fat. Can’t make the weight. Doesn’t want to make the weight. Doesn’t want to stop eating the pizza. Doesn’t want to put the box of donuts down.”
“I find it hard to even worry about this fight. What is he going to do? Even in Conor’s spar, for example, they did the twelve rounds but the only reason he somehow made it to the twelve round’s end because he did nothing. He was very, very passive. He never let the right hand go, he threw a couple of jabs and covering up the whole time. The headgear and the big gloves, of course, that saved him.”
“So what’s he going to do? Honestly, I’m just thinking back to that spar where I got to witness him live, watched a bunch of his fights now, what’s he going to do to me?”
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