Rising featherweight headhunter Artem Lobov has been on a verbal tirade of late. The man known as “Russian Hammer” has taken a page out of teammate Conor McGregor’s playbook by opening up his mouth, letting the words spew out and attracting attention by each and every gullible fight fan. Lobov declared resume-padding fighters “p*ssies” and used the p-word again to describe a fellow featherweight. That featherweight, who happened to lose to McGregor via 13-second knockout back at UFC 194, is none other than current Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) king Jose Aldo.
“I’ll tell you one thing about Jose Aldo, if I was in his position I would have never accepted that belt,” said Lobov in a recent interview with Submission Radio. “What? So they took the belt from the guy that knocked him out in 13 seconds. They took it off that guy and they handed him that belt and he just takes it and he’s happy and smiling on his face.”
Remember, Aldo claimed the interim featherweight strap with a victory over Frankie Edgar at UFC 200 this past July. Meanwhile, McGregor, the current 145-pound king at the time, journeyed up to 170 pounds to meet Nate Diaz for a second time. After McGregor decided to then challenge Eddie Alvarez at UFC 205 to capture the lightweight championship, UFC stripped “Notorious” of his featherweight title and named Aldo the undisputed champ.
“Like, what kind of pussy do you have to be to take that? No way in hell would I ever accept that belt,” added Lobov. “I would say, ‘give me that guy again. I want to fight him, and if he’s not in the division anymore, well then f—k that, I don’t want that belt. Let the other two fight for the belt and then I’ll fight the winner and I’ll earn that belt’. Because now he’s holding a belt that Conor got off him in 13 seconds and he’ll never be able to get rid of that stain.”
“Even if he beats now Max Holloway, he’ll still be holding that same belt. So how are you as a man, as a fighter that respects himself, accept that belt? I would have never done it in my life. I don’t know why he f—king done it.”
Lobov, who has only managed to win two out of his four Octagon appearances, will take on divisional staple Cub Swanson at UFC Fight Night 108 on April 22. If the free-swinging knockout artist can win his third-straight fight, he may be able to talk his way into bigger opportunities in 2017. Of course, he’ll have to do much more inside of the cage to one day challenge Aldo, who will meet current interim champion Max Holloway at UFC 212 on June 3 for the undisputed title.