While it was a close fight, many felt Artem Lobov was deserving of his unanimous decision victory over Paulie Malignaggi at Bare Knuckle FC 6 last night (Sat. June 22, 2019). Malignaggi, however, believes he clearly won the fight.
The two heated rivals finally clashed in bare knuckle action as it was Lobov who remained unbeaten in the sport, earning the 48-47 decision of all three judges. Considering Malignaggi was a former boxing champion and a betting favorite heading into the fight, many expected more from him.
One reason why he didn’t throw as much, however, could be attributed to a broken right hand he suffered during the fight. Regardless, Malignaggi still believes he won.
“I beat him with one hand,” Malignaggi told SecondsOut after the fight. “I broke my hand in round two. I guess that was one prediction everyone was right about — I would break my hand. I didn’t get an x-ray but I’ve broken my hand enough times to know what it feels like.
“…I don’t know if I even threw another right hand the rest of the fight. But I really felt like I didn’t need to, I was in control of the fight with my left hand. … Like I said in the post-fight interview, maybe these judges, they don’t get many fights down here [in Tampa]. At Showtime, I don’t think we’ve ever come here in the six years that I’ve been working here. Maybe these people don’t have a judge of real fighting since the 20th century or so. I thought I boxed him very clearly, I thought it was a clinical boxing lesson. I didn’t panic when my right hand broke. I felt like I had it in the bag. …A real shame the judges missed a good boxing match because I thought I boxed very well to not be given credit for the way I did it. Maybe this was a sign I made the wrong choice [laughs].”
Grudge Over For Malignaggi?
The buildup to this bare knuckle fight was extremely heated and personal, owing to Malignaggi’s beef with Conor McGregor. However, both Lobov and Malignaggi embraced each other after the fight.
So is the grudge over? Not entirely with the McGregor team, at least, according to the American’s response:
“I don’t respect what they’ve done because they lied but I mean, respect to the fighter for sure,” Malignaggi concluded. “He came in, he fought hard and he was awarded the decision and that was it.”
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