Artem Lobov lost a unanimous decision to Michael Johnson in the co-main event of last night’s (Sat., October 27, 2018) UFC Moncton from New Brunswick, Canada. The loss gave him three straight defeats in the UFC.
He hasn’t been demolished or finished in any of the losses. But he has lost each fight unanimously on all of the judges’ scorecards. His latest defeat predictably has online critics jumping on Lobov’s back. They claim he’s only in the UFC due to his longtime friendship with former champion Conor McGregor.
Not Just About Record
McGregor and Lobov’s Straight Blast Gym (SBG) coach John Kavanagh took offense to those doubters. He issued an emotional statement on Lobov on his Facebook page this afternoon. In it, he posed the question of whether or not a fighter’s win/loss record was the only determining factor for their overall body of work:
“Artem Lobov is only in the UFC because of his relationship with Conor McGregor. Maybe. Only for Conor he would not have been brought back after his preliminary loss on the Ultimate Fighter and, who knows, maybe quit. He has a losing record and just suffered another loss last night.
“If it’s just records you’re interested in, if someone’s win/loss record is as deep as your analysis is capable of then I’d stop reading now. Actually if you’ve never really tried to achieve anything yourself and instead enjoy making snide remarks and commentating on where the ‘the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better’ then I recommend Chuck Mindenhall’s recent article.”
A Fighters’ Fighter
Kavanagh went on to attest to Lobov’s toughness. That has never really been at question. The Russian has proven he’s willing to take five strikes to land one.
The coach claims Lobov never wanted an easy road to becoming a contender. Because of that, Kavanagh chose to focus on his view that Lobov is “a fighters’ fighter” who takes on the toughest challenge each fight:
“Artem is a rare breed of fighter. A fighters’ fighter. I’ve had conversations with top brass in the top organisations and they tell me it doesn’t matter who your guys fight, just get them winning records and we’ll take them on. That’s all that matters and has been commonplace in professional boxing for a long long time. Get them to 12-0 and we’ll sign them.
“That’s not Artem’s approach. Every fight was the toughest fight he could possibly find. Often times we would argue about that as I would try and guide him a little bit. He did not want to know. It is absolutely not the most efficient approach if you want to get to the ‘big organisations’. It’s one I’ve learned from but it’s also one that is impossible not to respect.”
Anyone At Anytime
You can’t deny that facing Johnson, a former lightweight who has fought the absolute best 155-pound challengers, was an extremely tough challenge for Lobov. But he showed his respect for Johnson taking the fight on short notice by offering to pay back the fine when “The Menace” missed weight. Johnson is approaching the gesture gingerly with skepticism, yet Lobov is steadfast he will pay it back.
Kavanagh finally admitted that he was writing his rant from a place of emotion due to the hate Lobov receives online. At the end of the day, he knows Lobov like few others do. He claimed a book written about his difficult life would be far more entertaining than Kavanagh’s own best-selling text:
“I’ll admit I’m writing this partially from a position of emotion. Artem is a friend and because I know about his incredibly tough life, I really hope he writes a book one day as it’d be far more interesting than the book I put out, it stings more than most. Plus his genuine ‘anyone, anytime’ attitude, often cited….so rarely true cannot help but impress the fan in me.
“As a training partner he will be incredibly tough on you, ruthlessly honest and would give you his last euro if you needed it. However that being said, I believe his performances in the cage against the highest level opposition in the world is worthy of a lot more respect that it gets.”
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